Hurley's World

In their April 2005 edition, Business 2.0 included a little article that rocked my world. Apparently, NatureWorks, a subsidiary of Cargill, "has pioneered a cheap way to turn [corn] into a substance that's well suited to the demands of packaging." As a common-sense environmentalist, this announcement came as a nice surprise to me. We've already had biodegradable "plastics" but most of them would not have been able to handle the demands placed on packaging. For instance, some of them start degrading as soon as they get wet while others are rather fragile and start degrading once the outer covering is pierced or cracked. Unfortunately, there isn't a ton of information about the product available in the article. However, it does mention a bunch of companies which have either already started using the new material or are going to roll out their new packaging soon. If you're interested, the companies are: Biota (started packing their water in it last October), Del Monte, Newman's Own Organic, Whole Foods, and Wild Oats (their fresh food).