If you have ever been to the Eco-building at the Minnesota State Fair you might recognize the project I have chosen to blog about. It was there that I was introduced to the U of M's Center for Sustainable Polymers program. Launched in 2009, CSP focuses its research on creating plastics from renewable, natural, and sustainable resources instead of fossil fuels. Materials researchers work with include vegetable oils, starches, sugars, and
terpenes. They are also very concerned with renewability, functionality, degradability, and toxicity of ingredients used and studied. Not only has U of M performed cutting edge research, they also focus on partnering with industries and educating students and the public. A few of the 24 companies that have been recruited are 3M, Dow, Cagill, and H.B. Fuller. I admire U of M's goal to be eco-friendly and love the work they have done. When sustainable polymers become more widely studied and used, we will have less garbage for landfills and more compostable material.
Some of the trade names of different sustainable and partially
sustainable polymers are:
Ingeo,
Mirel,
BiOH,
Mater-Bi,
Sorona,
NatureWax.
References:
http://www1.umn.edu/news/news-releases/2011/UR_CONTENT_354893.html
http://www.chem.umn.edu/csp/polymer_questions.html
Picture:
http://oecotextiles.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/classification-of-man-made-fibers.gif
Way to go U of M.
ReplyDeleteI agree, it is nice to see them taking a step forward in this.
they mention Aveda in the video... I'm curious how they fit in to this picture.
Thank you!
Gotta love it when schools are taking steps towards a greener environment. They have a huge impact on the communities that surround them and can impact the way they think about the environment! Hats off to the U of M
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