Brian Luedtke
January 11, 2011
Polylactic Acid Technology (2000)
Ray E. Drumright, Patrick R. Gruber, and David E. Henton
There have been many notable technological advances over the last two decades; from the internet, to 4G phones, to compostable plastics. The future is here ladies and gentlemen, and it’s waiting for you to reach out and embrace it. Polylactic Acid Technology has made compostable plastics a very real and bright addition to the reality that is the 21st century. Polylactic acid (PLA) is versatile, biodegradable, and constructed completely from renewable resources. PLA plastics have good crease retention and crimpling properties, excellent grease and oil resistance, as well as low temperature heat seal-ability and provides a great barrier to flavors and aromas. All of these properties are very desirable characteristics for just about any plastic product, including applications such as bags and packaging, coated paper, or food containers.
PLA compostable plastics are gaining attention in markets around the globe. However, these plastics are not receiving all this attention due to their biodegradable properties or the fact that they are created from renewable resources. It is the high quality, cost-effective properties that these plastics possess that are causing a global stir. These plastics are increasing the demand for crops like corn and sugar beets while decreasing our reliance on petroleum.
NatureWorks™ (Cargill Dow, LLC) is a company pioneering the PLA industry. They have such products as the compostable smoothy and coffee cup, as well as compostable dinnerware that is used right here at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point (UWSP) by the on campus dining services. This company is hard at work creating the renewable plastics of tomorrow; the question is, are they ahead of their time? Currently UWSP is paying premium prices for these NatureWorks dinnerware items and disposing of them with the traditional trash, paying the tipping fees and sticking the students with the bill.
The University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point is more than capable of setting up a compost program on campus to deal not only with the PLA dinnerware wastes, but with our food and paper wastes. The new waste building is a step in the right direction, but it is not a step in the proper on-site handling of our own compostable wastes. There are numerous esteemed professionals on campus that are more than capable of designing and implementing a composting program. Over the last year I have personally contacted several persons on campus in regards to a composting program and have received no dignifiable response. Is it justifiable to keep paying double for dinnerware and tipping fees when the campus could easily process these waste streams on-site? Not to mention an on-site composting program would be priceless hands-on experience for students studying waste with potential employment in the emerging composting field. Please, if you feel that UWSP should implement a composting program send the chancellor an e-mail at bpatter@uwsp.edu showing your support for an on campus composting program.
3 comments:
Brian,
You bring up a topic that should be of rather large concern to the UWSP campus as a whole not only due to economics, but preparing for a future career. This entry not only raises awareness to those in the class, but offers them a contact person if they would choose to take a stand for something that they are paying for.
Another route you could have taken was contacting the Waste Management Society (WMS) and they might have increased a student push for the program that you spoke about becoming a reality.
Other than that it was a well written blog that showed that you were truly excited about, and have a passion for.
Thanks for the kind words tdahlke!
Your suggestion to talk to WMS is properly timed! I'm beginning to organize a campus composting council to get the ball rolling on campus composting.
Hey Brian-
I worked for UDS for the last year and a half, and I have seen the strides that they have tried to make in ways of reducing waste. Now being there before their new pulper and seeing what happened after they installed the pupler has definetely changed the amount of waste coming from the building. However, more could be done.
I worked at Debot when they installed a new dish machine that recycles water through the pulper and pulps up everything. We used to have garbage bins in the dishroom, but not anymore. Now this has decreased the amount of waste that gets thrown out every night. Yet, the composting still needs some work.
Everything that comes through the dishroom, other than silverware, get sent through the pulper. Now before I learned more about composting, I thought this was a great system. There was compost produced that minimized the amount we threw away, and local farmers were willing to take the compost to use on their farms. Then one of my friends who was a waste major explained to me more about composting. Composting works best with organic materials, not plastics or meat products which were among the things being pulped up and dumped into the compost bin. This amazed me and I was shocked. Why did we do this? There has got to be a better way.
To this day I will never know why we bought something that is really not creating anything that can be re-used, but I am with you in that the time has come for proper composting to occur. I would love to see how much actual garabage gets dimished because of it. Best idea and good luck with goal. UWSP wants to go green, and here is the way to do so.
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