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Making renewable plastic with bugs

By Shawn Schuster

As greenies, we know that plastic is a dirty word. Despite the fact that it's used in such a high percentage of our everyday life, the fact that it emits harmful chemicals and never biodegrades makes it an environmental nightmare. But what if we could somehow change that last part? What if there was a plastic that was as functional as the plastic we know today, but it was created naturally through micro organisms instead of petroleum, and actually was 100 percent renewable?

Genomatica may have that solution. The green chemistry start up company announced today that it has successfully produced a chemical known as 1, 4-butanediol (BDO for short) through natural means, instead of with petroleum, as it is created currently. This micro organism actually converts sugar into this BDO in volumes up to scale to compete in the current chemical industry. Genomatica's CEO Christopher Cann says that this "green BDO" can be used in any products that traditionally use BDO, such as spandex, airbags, textiles, etc.

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