In recent years, many countries in the world have stepped up the development and utilization of agricultural and sideline products in order to improve the comprehensive benefits of agriculture. The use of agricultural and sideline products to produce environmentally friendly packaging materials has become a research hotspot in the field of scientific research.
At present, research on the replacement of existing packaging plastics with "biodegradable resins" is in full swing. Corn is a delicious and nutritious food, it is also widely used in the manufacture of sweeteners and animal feed. With the advancement of technology, scientists have found that the use of corn can also create a variety of plastic products, such as the recent "Japanese corn starch resin" is a new type of green environmental protection materials. This kind of resin is made of corn as raw material, processed and plasticized, and it can be used to make a variety of disposable articles, such as cups, plastic bags, and commodity packaging. According to experiments, this packaging material can be disposed of by burning, biochemical decomposition, and insect feeding, thus eliminating the "white pollution" hazard.
So, how does corn become a plastic product?
First of All, the sugar in the corn is extracted, and the carbon, which is the base material for making plastics and fibers, is extracted through fermentation and distillation and processed into a kind of fine particles with a diameter of only 4.57 mm called polylactide (PLA). Finally, these small particles are pressed into bags, foam or tableware.
According to information recently revealed in Taiwan, China, the number of plastic bags produced per ton of corn resin in Taiwan is now almost the same as that produced with plastic powder. According to statistics from the plastics industry in Taiwan, about 100 million tons of plastic products are produced each year in the world, and 30 million tons of disposable packaging materials are used. Solving the pollution caused by these materials takes a lot of social costs. If corn resin can successfully replace some of the packaging, Plastics are estimated to have a worthy $10 billion market each year.
Although corn plastic is very environmentally friendly, it also has a significant disadvantage. For example, the price of corn plastic plates produced by North American bio-company is about 5% higher than that of traditional plastic plates, and the price of cups is even higher by 25%. However, the company's president, Frederick Hill, believes that within five years, as the demand for corn plastics increases, the scale of production will expand and costs will drop.
Food science experts from the U.S. Department of Agriculture have also recently announced that a new environment-friendly food packaging material is expected to come out. This new type of environmentally friendly packaging material is completely made of crushed strawberries, so it is very environmentally friendly and may replace traditional polyethylene plastic film and become a new material for food packaging. According to Tara MeHush, a food expert of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this newly developed food packaging material is no different from traditional products in terms of performance. The food packaging film made of it can also stop oxygen. Infiltration, so as to achieve the effect of food preservation. Since the composition of this new material is mainly derived from vegetables and fruits that are not suitable for consumption, it is a naturally decomposable, environmentally friendly material. In the test, the packaging film made of this "magic" material can not only play a role in keeping fresh, but also can improve the taste of fruits such as bananas and apples. McHugh said that in the near future, not only can strawberries be used as packaging materials, but also vegetables and fruits such as carrots and broccoli can be used as packaging materials. There is no doubt that the successful application of this new packaging material and other similar materials will revolutionize the food packaging industry.
Kargil Dow Polymers, a joint venture between Japan's Cargill and Dow Chemical, has also succeeded in making packaging materials from natural plants such as corn or wheat. This packaging material is named "polylactide natural product" and can be used to make paper cups, candy wrappers, etc. It has good hand feeling, high elasticity and resistance to fouling.
In China, the development of new packaging materials has also achieved certain results. For example, Hubei Wuhan Futuo Environmental Packaging Materials Co., Ltd. and Wuhan Jinfeng Environmental Plastics Co., Ltd. have mastered the technology of processing deteriorating grain into earthquake-resistant decompression packaging materials, which not only finds a way out for China’s metamorphic grain, but also successfully explores the replacement of packaging materials. the road. In addition, they can also process wastes such as bagasse, wheat straw, and waste newspapers into a variety of shock-proof decompression packaging materials such as gold, orange, and light gray. Tests have shown that the performance of this material is not inferior to that of foamed plastic materials. At present, only further research is needed on weight reduction.