Food Prices and Energy

Plastics love crude oil.

In fact, conventional plastic packaging uses an estimated 200,000 barrels of oil a day in the United States. That’s one reason why the plastic used in milk jugs has jumped 144% in recent years. American agriculture has developed a method to replace that oil with 100% annually renewable corn. That’s right, plastic made from corn!

Corn Plastic & Food Supply
Because it’s made from corn, does corn plastic take away from the food supply? No. Corn plastic uses dextrose as the base feedstock used in a fermentation process (much like beer or wine) which converts sugar to lactic acid. That lactic acid is then used to make a polymer called polylactic acid (PLA). That PLA is made into packaging for foods and consumer goods. This dextrose is made from No. 2 yellow dent field corn. This kind of corn is not the kind of corn you eat on the cob or find at the grocery store. In fact, less than 10% of the corn grown in the U.S. is made into food.

Corn Plastic & Food Prices
Some food companies, like Newman’s Own Organics, have been using some PLA products for years, but the material got its biggest boost when Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, began to use PLA containers. Wal-Mart plans to use 114 million PLA containers a year, which company executives estimate will save 800,000 barrels of oil annually.

Not only does PLA replace oil with corn, it also uses 65% less energy than producing conventional plastics. Add in rising cost of oil and new advancements in technology and PLA is quickly becoming an affordable solution to higher food prices.

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PLA Facts or Fiction