Thanks to ongoing efforts by the Dow sustainability leaders and their public relations team, plant-based plastics are gaining national attention. And our innovative role is receiving recognition.
In an August 17 overview of the upswing in plant-based plastics demand and the 14% bump in annual production, WSJ reporter Dieter Holger takes the reader through the markets, materials, end products, and afterlife of plastics, such as recyclables and biodegradables. The article distinguishes between two types of bioplastics; one can’t be recycled, the other can.
The reporter has saved the best for last. The part where we ride to the planet’s rescue on our green tractor and start “turning agricultural waste into recyclable plastics.”
Left unsaid was this: Nobody else can profitably refine waste corn stalks into second-generation ethanol at commercial-scale. The lower carbon scores we can get from our process translate into greater planet healing.
Repeat: we’re not about refining corn but corn stalks. Not a single extra acre of farmland is used to supply our feedstock. Keep that in mind when you read about an Asian chemical company making bioplastics out of sugar cane. Not the same at all.
The low-carbon future: Our first five refineries will keep over 1,000,000 tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere—year after year after year. This isn’t some slick carbon offset. This is the real climate-healing deal.
And yet another reason we’re very proud to be working with Dow.
—Roger Moore
