Memo7-Project+Timeline

History of Bioplastics
The use of [|natural polymers] is not entirely a new idea. In one form or another, green plastics have been around for a long time. 

** Early History **
Natural resins-like amber, shellac, and gutta percha-have been mentioned throughout history, including during Roman times and the Middle Ages. Native Americans were developing and refining techniques for making ladles and spoons from animal horns long before there was any European contact. In Europe, molded horn jewelry and snuff boxes were popular in the eighteenth century. 

** The 1800's **
Significant commercialization of bioplastics only began in the middle of the nineteenth century... The American inventor, John Wesley Hyatt, Jr., was looking for a substitute for ivory in the manufacture of billiard balls, and in 1869 patented a cellulose derivative for coating non-ivory billiard balls. That attempt, however, was affected by the coating's flammability; balls were occasionally ignited when lit cigars accidentally came into contact with them. Hyatt continued working on the project and soon developed celluloid, the first widely used plastic, now most widely known for its use in photographic and movie film. 

** The 1900's **
The history of plastics changed dramatically in the early 1900s, as petroleum emerged as a source of fuel and of chemicals. The early bioplastics were simply displaced by plastics made from synthetic polymers. World War II brought on a large increase in plastics production, a growth which continues to this day. 

**The 1920's**
In the 1920s Henry Ford experimented with using soybeans in the manufacture of automobiles. Ford was partly motivated by a desire to find non-food applications for agricultural surpluses, which existed then as they do now. Soy plastics were used for an increasing number of automobile parts, like steering wheels, interior trim, and dashboard panels. Finally Ford gave the go-ahead to produce a complete prototype "plastic car." Ford, a master at generating publicity, exhibited the prototype with great fanfare in 1941, but by the end of the year was no longer publicizing the "plastic car," probably for a variety of reasons. World War II played a role: armament work took precedent over almost everything else, and steel shortages limited all non-defense production. Today plastic automobile parts are common, but the use of plastics made from renewable raw materials got side-tracked. 

** The 1960's **
One well established bioplastic that has survived the growth of the synthetic plastics industry is cellophane, a sheet material derived from cellulose. Although production peaked in the 1960s it is still used in packaging for candy, cigarettes, and other articles. 

** The 2000's and Beyond **
Demand for materials like plastics is continually growing and will not be abated. Today, the plastics industry is an important component of our economy: The U.S. plastics industry includes over 20,000 facilities that produce or distribute materials or products, employ over 1.5 million workers, and ship over $300 billion in products each year. The magnitude of the plastics industry, however, is itself a cause for concern. The pressures of increasing waste and diminishing resources have lead many to to try to re-discover natural polymers and put them to use as materials for manufactor and industry. As a result, there is increasing interest in the promise of a new generation of green plastics. President George W. Bush, proclaimed, in early 2006, that “America is addicted to oil.” Later that year, Bush almost came clean about Iraq, admitting (after a fashion), according to Peter Baker of the //Washington Post//, that “the war is about oil.” For the first time he used petroleum as a justification for continuing the occupation of Iraq, saying, “You can imagine a world in which these extremists and radicals got control of energy resources.” Bush’s acknowledgment was no great revelation. After all, oil is not only a key driver of the U.S. economy but also a major source of the nation’s energy. As a former oilman (with Dick Cheney, the former head of oil-services giant Halliburton, as his vice president), Bush knew this all too well—hence an invasion of one of the Middle East’s key oil lands topped by an occupation where, initially, looters were allowed to tear almost every part of the Iraqi capital to pieces, save for the Oil Ministry. [from [|http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5097/ ]] The world begins to realize that oil is scarce The citizens of the United States get a slap in the face and realize their world relies on an energy source that comes from dangerous, unstable, etc. places Waste tipping costs in landfills rise instigating more interest in alternatives to plastics, new emphasis on recycling, etc. Climate change becomes a 'reality' and greenhouse gases from petrol are put on stage. Dow jumps out of the bioplastic market Gas gets really expensive China and India and others increase consumption of fuel __ the April 2008, the UK newspaper The Guardian publishes a story on the problems of bioplastics, sited everywhere. __ bioplastics come out in consumer goods  In November 2006, in what seemed a blow to its environment-friendly image, NatureWorks was fined US$ 60,000 for incorrect assessment of its plant's VOC emissions. [|this also coincided with an Athena Institute study of the life cycle analysis of some PLA products and petrol based products] Turn of the century and through the 1930's Henry Ford and George Carver worked on producing and marketing bioplastics. Chemurgy movement develops alongside this work to market Ag goods for industrial feedstocks. Gas gets cheap, bioplastic and chemurgy die off. In the early 1950's, Amylomaize (>50% starch content corn) was successfully bred and commercial bioplastics applications started to be explored. From wikipedia:
 * In the early 1950s, [|Amylomaize] (>50% starch content corn) was successfully bred and commercial bioplastics applications started to be explored.
 * In 2004, [|NEC] developed a [|flame retardant] plastic, [|polylactic acid], without using [|toxic] chemicals such as [|halogensand] [|phosphorus] compounds [|[3]].
 * In 2005, [|Fujitsu] became one of the first technology companies to make personal computer cases from bioplastics, which are featured in their [|FMV-BIBLO NB80K] line.
 * In 2007 [|Braskem] of Brazil announced it had developed a route to manufacture high density polyethylene (HDPE) using ethylene derived from sugar cane.
 * In 2008, the [|University of Warwick] team, has created a soap free emulsion polymerization process which makes [|colloid] particles of polymer dispersed in water and in a one step process adds nanometre sized [|silica]-based particles to the mix. The newly developed technology might be most applicable to [|multi-layered] biodegradable packaging which could gain more robustness and [|water barrier] characteristics through the addition of a [|nano-particle] [|coating][|[][|18][|]].

From [|http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Marketing/Natureworks-Market%20Development%20for%20Bioplastics-Case%20Studies.htm:]  A major component of Cargill Dow's strategy was to form alliances with converters, manufacturers of packaging material, retailers, and lifestyle brand owners. For example, in 2002, Cargill Dow teamed up with Biocorp N.A, a leading provider of bio-degradable packaging. Biocorp manufactured cups made with NatureWorks PLA. The first customer for the cups was the Coca-Cola Company, which used them as venue cups at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games held at Salt Lake City...  <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px;">Despite these efforts, neither the demand for NatureWorks PLA nor its profitability reached the levels that Dow had expected them to. In late 2004, newspaper reports suggested that Dow was thinking of exiting the joint venture. Dow finally sold its stake in the JV in January 2005 to Cargill. Andrew N. Liveris, President and CEO, Dow Chemicals, said, "Customers are not willing to pay a premium for environmentally friendly polymers." Soon after Dow exited from the joint venture, the JV, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cargill, was renamed NatureWorks LLC. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">However, NatureWorks' fortunes soon changed for the better. The market for PLA began to expand from 2005, due to increasing petroleum prices (Refer Exhibit VIII for corn and petroleum prices). With the price of PLA becoming more competitive vis-à-vis conventional polymer resins (Refer Exhibit IX for more information on the packaging industry), more and more converters began showing interest in PLA and approaching the company for joint product development. For example, in 2005, the Lacerta Group began to explore new thermoforming applications for NatureWorks PLA... <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">