Petroleum, it's become a dirty word, diminishing supplies, skyrocketing prices, foreign entanglements pollution. But it's hard to break the addiction. Petroleum is used in a variety of manufacturing processes, for example it's the primary material used in making plastics. Now that's changing. what can we possibly use to replace oil ?

Well, it's something a little closer to home. The new corn based plastic be made from corn. People can't tell the difference between petroleum-based plastic and corn based plastic. That's because the products perform the same, but the people do know there's a world of difference between the two products.

The technology is cutting-edge. This is what the resin looks like before it's made into film and sheets. The resin goes up into a dryer units to take out all the moisture before the resin is sent to the extrusion process. Once the corn resin is in the drying unit and the moisture is completely remove, it is time for the extrusion process, where it is heated up. The corn resin being forced through the extrusion process, using the combination of heat and pressure, it is then forced upwards using air through a die to form the bubble. After the bubble is collapsed the product goes through a series of rollers to help form the final film-PLA. PLA stands for poly lactic acid. Traditionally petroleum is used to make plastics and petroleum is a finite source, we can only rely on that so much for so long, and what makes this film so attractive is that it is made from a resource corn which is in renewable and it's a completely sustainable product. By using the PLA film, we developed environmental PPE products successfully. Like the PLA coverall suit, PLA face mask etc.  

But the advantages don’t end there. It's been estimated that petroleum-based plastics are going to take nearly 500 years to disappear and that’s biodegrading in the landfills. The film takes just a matter of several weeks, for very thin film with the right combination of heat moisture and bacteria, and it can be composted. It’s very invigorating seeing the sense of excitement from the consumers and they're excited that there is an alternative to the petrochemical based films, and the future really is now.

Why are we working on this new products? One of the most important reasons that we're getting away from a commodity product is because we're being hurt from the imports of other companies they can produce it so much cheaper than we can, but in one way of getting away from that was finding another source especially a domestic source, and it helps us even more that the product is completely natural.