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Sugar Plastic

Our nation’s heavy dependence upon foreign oil doesn’t come just from our love affair with big, gas-guzzling SUVs and zippy little sports cars. Look around at all the plastic in your life and you’ll see another big source of oil consumption.

But thanks to green chemistry, now there’s even an environmentally friendly solution to plastic: high-fructose corn syrup.

Yep, the same ingredient used to sweeten everything from ketchup to soft drinks can now be used to manufacture plastic and lower carbon dioxide emissions (helping to slow global warming) in the process. The technology has been around for a little while, but until recently, researchers hadn’t found a way to use it cost-effectively or efficiently.

Recently, chemical engineers at the University of Wisconsin found a way to convert fructose into a substance used to make plastic without creating unwanted byproducts. Now what’s needed is a pilot plant to produce it in large quantities.

With the price of oil so high these days, and continued pressure to reduce carbon emissions, sugar plastic could turn out to be a sweet alternative.

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To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org, or www.healthandenvironment.org