How to grow an
Orangina bottle
( click on image for the film )
CASE 1:
Up to 90% of what we pay
for a product is packaging.
Growing plastic packaging is the product.
CASE 2:
10 calories of oil is needed
to produce 1 calorie of food.
Growing plastic packaging would reduce the
consumption of oil in the production process.
CONSUMER SCENARIO
Because petrochemicals are key components to much more than just the gas in your car. As geologist Dale Allen
Pfeiffer points out in his article entitled, "Eating Fossil Fuels," approximately 10 calories of fossil fuels are required to
produce every 1 calorie of food eaten in the US.
Why an alternative is necessary. This idyllic notion of growing plastic, achievable in the foreseeable future,
seems vastly more appealing than manufacturing plastic in petrochemical factories, which consume about
270 million tons of oil and gas every year worldwide. Fossil fuels provide both the power and the raw materials
that transform crude oil into common plastics such as polystyrene, polyethylene and polypropylene. From milk jugs
and soda bottles to clothing and car parts, it is difficult to imagine everyday life without plastics, but the sustainability
of their production has increasingly been called into question. Known global reserves of oil are expected to run dry
in approximately 80 years, natural gas in 70 years and coal in 700 years, but the economic impact of their depletion
could hit much sooner. As the resources diminish, prices will go up--a reality that has not escaped the attention of
policymakers. President Bill Clinton issued an executive order in August 1999 insisting that researchers work toward
replacing fossil resources with plant material both as fuel and as raw material.
In the end, reducing atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide may be too much to ask of the plastics industry.
But any manufacturing process, not just those for plastics, would benefit from the use of renewable raw materials
and renewable energy. The significant changes that would be required of the world's electrical power infrastructure
to make this shift might well be worth the effort. After all, renewable energy is the essential ingredient in any comprehensive
scheme for building a sustainable economy, and as such, it remains the primary barrier to producing truly "green" plastics.
Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon. This is not the wacky proclamation of a doomsday cult,
apocalypse bible prophecy sect, or conspiracy theory society. Rather, it is the scientific conclusion of the best paid,
most widely-respected geologists, physicists, and investment bankers in the world. These are rational, professional,
conservative individuals who are absolutely terrified by a phenomenon known as global "Peak Oil."
The size of this ratio stems from the fact that every step of modern food production is fossil fuel and petrochemical powered:
1. Pesticides are made from oil;
2. Commercial fertilizers are made from ammonia, which is made from natural gas, which will peak about 10 years after oil peaks;
3. With the exception of a few experimental prototypes, all farming implements such as tractors and trailers are constructed and powered using oil;
4. Food storage systems such as refrigerators are manufactured in oil-powered plants, distributed across oil-powered transportation networks and usually run on electricity, which most often comes from natural gas or coal;
5. In the US, the average piece of food is transported almost 1,500 miles before it gets to your plate.
HISTORY OF PLASTICS
Alexander Parkes Invents First Man-Made Plastic.
The first man-made plastic was unveiled by Alexander Parkes at the 1862 Great International Exhibition in London.
This material - which the public dubbed Parkesine - was an organic material derived from cellulose that once heated
could be molded but that retained its shape when cooled. Parkes claimed that this new material could do anything rubber
was capable of, but at a lower price. He had discovered something that could be transparent as well as carved into
thousands of different shapes. But Parkesine soon lost its luster, when investors pulled the plug on the product due to
the high cost of the raw materials needed in its production.
Celluloid Makes Its Debut.
During the latter part of the 19th century, a rush was on to find a replacement for ivory in billiards balls. Billiards
became so popular that thousands of elephants were killed just so their valuable ivory could be obtained. John Wesley
Hyatt, an American, finally came upon the solution in 1866 with celluloid. Hyatt, upon spilling a bottle of collodion in his
workshop, discovered that the material congealed into a tough, flexible film. He then produced billiard balls using collodian
as a substitute for ivory. But due to its highly brittle nature, the billiard balls would shatter once they hit each other. The
solution to this challenge was the addition of camphor - a derivative of the laurel tree. This addition made celluloid the
first thermoplastic: a substance molded under heat and pressure into a shape it retains even after the heat and pressure
have been removed. Celluloid went on to be used in the first flexible photographic film for still and motion pictures.
The Story of Bakelite.
The first completely synthetic man-made substance was discovered in 1907, when Leo Baekeland, a New York chemist,
developed a liquid resin that he named Bakelite. Baekeland had developed an apparatus - which he called a Bakelizer -
that enabled him to vary heat and pressure precisely so as to control the reaction of volatile chemicals. Using this pot-like
apparatus, Baekeland developed a new liquid (bakelite resin) that rapidly hardened and took the shape of its container.
Once hardened, the resin would form an exact replica of any vessel that contained it. This new material would not burn,
boil, melt, or dissolve in any commonly available acid or solvent. This meant that once it was firmly set, it would never
change. This one benefit made it stand out from previous "plastics." While celluloid-based substances could be melted
down innumerable times and reformed, Bakelite was the first thermoset plastic which would retain its shape and form under
any circumstances. Bakelite could be added to almost any material - such as softwood - and instantly make it more durable
and effective. Numerous products began to be manufactured based on this new material. One of the sectors of society most
interested in its development was the military. The US Government saw Bakelite opening the door to production of new
weaponry and lightweight war machinery that steel could not match. In fact, Bakelite was a key ingredient in most of the
weapons used in the Second World War. Bakelite was also used for domestic purposes such as electrical insulators. For
this purpose it proved to be more effective than any other material available - so effective, in fact, that it is still used as such
today. Bakelite is electrically resistant, chemically stable, heat-resistant, shatter-proof and neither cracks, fades, creases,
nor discolors from exposure to sunlight, dampness or sea salt.
Rayon and Cellophane.
Rayon - another modified cellulose - was first developed in 1891 in Paris by Louis Marie Hilaire Bernigaut, the Count of
Chardonnet. He was searching for a way to produce man-made silk. After studying silkworms, Bernigaut noticed that the
worm would secrete a liquid from a narrow orifice that would harden upon exposure to air and turn into silk. He deduced
that if he could find a liquid that would have similar characteristics to silk before being secreted, he could then pass it through
a man-made apparatus to form fibers that could be spun and feel like silk. The only problem with his new invention was that
it was highly flammable. This problem was later solved by Charles Topham. Cellophane was discovered by Dr. Jacques
Edwin Brandenberger, a Swiss textile engineer, who came upon the idea for a clear, protective, packaging layer in 1900.
Brandenberger was seated at a restaurant when he noticed a customer spill a bottle of wine onto the tablecloth. The waiter
removed the cloth replacing it with another and disposed of the soiled one. Brandenberger swore that he would discover
some way to apply a clear flexible film to cloth, which would keep it safe from such accidents and allow it to be easily cleaned
with the swipe of a clean towel. He worked on resolving this problem by utilizing different materials until he hit paydirt in
1913 by adding Viscose (now known as Rayon). Brandenberger added viscose to cloth but the end result was a brittle
material that was too stiff to be of any use. Yet Brandenberger saw another potential for the viscose material. He developed
a new machine that could produce viscose sheets, which he marketed as Cellophane. With a few more improvements,
Cellophane allowed for a clear layer of packaging for any product - the first fully flexible, water-proof wrap.
The Discovery of Nylon.
The 1920s witnessed a "plastics craze", as the use of cellophane spread throughout the world. DuPont, one of the industry
leaders, became a hotbed for innovation concerning plastics. Wallace Hume Carothers, a young Harvard chemist, became
the head of the DuPont lab. The company was responsible for the moisture-proofing of Cellophane and was well on its way
to developing Nylon, which at the time they named Fiber 66. Carothers saw the possible value that a new tough plastic such
as Fiber 66 could possess. The fiber replaced animal hair in toothbrushes and silk stockings. The stockings were unveiled
in 1939, to great public acceptance. H. Staudinger in Germany was the first to recognize the structural nature of plastics, but
Carothers built upon this theory. As demonstrated by Carothers, by substituting and inserting elements into the chemical chain,
new materials and uses could be developed. During the 1940s, the world saw the use of such materials as nylon, acrylic,
neoprene, SBR, polyethylene, and many more polymers take the place of natural material supplies that were becoming
exhausted.
PVC, Saran, and Teflon®.
Another important plastic innovation of the time was the development of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), or vinyl. Waldo Semon,
a B.F. Goodrich organic chemist, was attempting to bind rubber to metal when he stumbled across PVC. Semon later
discovered that this material was inexpensive, durable, fire-resistant, and easily molded. Vinyl found a special place in the
hearts of Americans as an upholstery material that would last for years in the average family's living room.
In 1933, Ralph Wiley, a Dow Chemical lab worker, accidentally discovered yet another plastic: polyvinylidene chloride
(better known as Saran). Saran was first used to protect military equipment, but it was later discovered that it was great for
food packaging. Saran would cling to almost any material - bowls, dishes, pots and even itself; thus, it became the perfect
tool for maintaining the freshness of food at home. A DuPont chemist named Roy Plunkett discovered Teflon®, in 1938.
Teflon® today is widely used in kitchenware. Plunkett discovered the material accidentally by pumping freon gas into a
cylinder left in cold storage overnight. The gas dissipated into a solid white powder. Teflon® is unique because it is
impervious to acids in addition to both cold and heat. Teflon® is now best-known for its slipperiness - which makes it highly
effective in pots and pans for easy cooking and cleaning.
Polyethylene.
In 1933, two organic chemists working for the Imperial Chemical Industries Research Laboratory were testing various chemicals
under highly pressurized conditions. In their wildest imaginations, the two researchers E.W. Fawcett and R.O. Gibson, had no
idea that the revolutionary substance they would come across - polyethylene - would have an enormous impact on the world.
The researchers set off a reaction between ethylene and benzaldehyde, utilizing two thousand atmospheres of internal pressure.
The experiment went askew when their testing container sprang a leak and all of the pressure escaped. Upon opening the tube
they were surprised to find a white, waxy substance that greatly resembled plastic. When the experiment was carefully repeated
and analyzed the scientists discovered that the loss of pressure was only partly due to a leak; the greater reason was the
polymerization process that had occurred leaving behind polyethylene. In 1936, Imperial Chemical Industries developed a
large-volume compressor that made the production of vast quantities of polyethylene possible. This high-volume production
of polyethylene actually led to some history-making events. For instance, polyethylene played a key supporting role during
World War II - first as an underwater cable coating and then as a critical insulating material for such vital military applications as
radar insulation. This is because it was so light and thin that it made placing radar onto airplanes possible; something that
could not be done using traditional insulating materials because they weighed too much. In fact, the use of polyethylene as an
insulating material reduced the weight of radars to 600 pounds in 1940 and even less as the war progressed. It was these
lightweight radar systems, capable of being carried onboard planes, that allowed the out-numbered Allied aircraft to detect
German bombers under such difficult conditions as nightfall and thunderstorms. It was not until after the war, though, that the
material became a tremendous hit with consumers and from that point on, its rise in popularity has been almost unprecedented.
It became the first plastic in the United States to sell more than a billion pounds a year and it is currently the largest volume
plastic in the world. Today, polyethylene is used to make such common items as soda bottles, milk jugs and grocery and
dry-cleaning bags in addition to plastic food storage containers.
Velcro® and the Development of Silly Putty®.
A plastic that has struck the fancy of many youngsters over the years is plastic putty -- better known as Silly Putty®.
James Wright, a GE engineer, came upon the material by mixing silicone oil with boric acid. The compound possessed
some rather unique qualities. It acted very much like rubber in its ability to rebound almost 25 percent higher than a normal
rubber ball. This "Nutty Putty" was also impervious to rot and unable to maintain a shape for more than a short period of time.
It could be stretched many times its length without tearing. This material also would copy the image of any printed material
that it was pressed upon. In 1949, the material was sold under the name of Silly Putty®, selling faster -- at that time -- than any
other toy in history with over $6 million in sales for the year. The birth of Velcro®, yet another unique plastic product which has
impacted nearly all of our lives occurred in 1957. A Swiss engineer named George de Maestral was impressed with the way
that cockleburs - a type of vegetation - would use thousands of tiny hooks to cling to anything with which they came into contact.
He devised a product, using nylon, that replicated this natural phenomenon. The result, Velcro®, could be spun in any required
thickness, would not rot, mold or naturally degrade, and was relatively inexpensive.
Plastic is cultivated.
2012. The ability to genetically enhance plants to grow plastics is realized. Because of this scientific development and because
of decreasing oil reserves in the near future, the demand for natural (grown) plastics is expected to grow steadily. Also, in
Australia the first ever orange orchard is established where genetically modified orange trees grow plastic packaged
orange juice.
2050. Growing plastic packaging has become the predominant way of producing packaged food. As a consequence, brand names
in the food industry have become a thing of the past.
download your plastic codes here! (in pdf)
FUTURE OF PLASTICS
Dear Dr. Chapple,
My name is Debbie Mollenhagen and I am currently doing a post-graduate
programme at the Sandberg Institute in the Netherlands (Amsterdam). The
Sandberg Institute is the post-graduate design school of the Rietveld
Academy which is one of the leading art academies in the Netherlands. I
am a qualified graphic designer and in addition I have a keen interest
in new scientific developments. Currently I am investigating the
possibilities of new technologies for packaging. I will shortly explain
to you why I decided to send you this e-mail. Hopefully you will find
some time to read this.
Three years ago I had an idea about the use of gentechnology and only
recently I started developing this idea into a project called "How to
grow an Orangina bottle" (see the link to my project website below).
Three months ago I was awarded the first prize for my project in a
competition called "Nanoworld 2020" organized by the Rathenau Institute
in the Netherlands (links below). In addition, Discovery Channel
recently contacted me to do a story on my project for their new
popular-scientific tv series "Above and Beyond". Although they were a
bit concerned that theywouldn't have enough visuals to support the idea,
they did think the idea was very interesting and will contact me again in
the near future. In a few weeks time I will also do a presentation about my
Orangina project for Schweppes in the Netherlands (as you probably know,
Schweppes is the manufacturer of many soft drinks including Orangina).
Why would a designer be interested in scientific developments and new
technologies such as gentechnology? Initially I started the project with
the intention of making people aware of the idiocy on which marketing is
based and the fact that when we purchase a product we are mostly paying
for the marketing of the product and not the product itself. However,
after developing this idea I quickly came to realize that perhaps this was a
solution to the problem.
In design we are seeing a trend to shift the product name/brand into
the design of the product itself. For instance, the most exclusive and
expensive Mercedes on the market today carries no traits of its name
except for the design. In other words, one can only recognize such a
car as being a Mercedes because of its design. If we consider the
technological developments in food industry we realize that the same is
happening there, but more in the sense that the consumer demands are
also indirectly genetically modifying the product itself. It seems
logical to me when looking at existing packaging and the trends within
packaging that the emphasis on the brandname will be replaced with the
design of the product itself.
Currently I am trying to put my Orangina project on a firmer
(scientific) footing and I am trying to investigate to what extent the
project could actually be realized in the future. A while ago I was
searching the internet and I came accross an interview with you about
your research into the gene of a plant that is responsible for the
production of UV protective compounds, and the collaboration with DuPont
who are interested in your results to make plants produce ingredients
for the production of new types of plastics ( see
foodtechsource.com ).
Although I am not a biochemist myself and perhaps did not understand
all details, the headline of the interview "From Genomes to Plant Plastics Factories"
naturally drew my attention. In any case, the article seemed to imply
that my ideas are not completely far-fetched and that my Orangina
project does have potential.
This is the reason why I decided to send you this e-mail. Since you are
an experienced biochemist with affinity for growing new materials by
genetic modification of plants (considering your research and the
collaboration with DuPont as described in the article), I would like to
ask you whether you could comment on my Orangina project. That is, could
you give your ideas as to what extent my project could be realized at
some point in the future, which parts of it you regard as realistic (or
unrealistic) and which are the scientific hurdles that need to be taken?
I fully realize that I am asking much by sending you this e-mail.
Naturally I would be very grateful to you should you be willing to
answer my e-mail.
Yours sincerely,
Debbie Mollenhagen.
Links to my "How to grow an Orangina bottle" project website and movie:
How to grow an Orangina website
The film
Links to the Nanoworld 2020 competition website:
Rathenau Institute Nanoworld 2020 contest
First Prize for me!
Dear Debbie,
Thanks for your very interesting e-mail!
A complete answer to your letter would probably take many hours to compose because it touches on many issues.
I also think that you deserve a decent answer to what a letter that many biochemists might consider somewhat "unusual"
because you've obviously given a great deal of thought to your concept, to the point of having won the Nanoworld 2020
competition! Please let me give you my congratulations.
So far as an answer goes, I don't know how well I will be able to do. Most directly, our work with DuPont was not intended
to actually generate plastics in plants. The idea was to use plants as an industrial source of monomers which polymer
chemists could incorporate into new plastics with potentially novel properties. There is significant interest from many other
plant biochemists/molecular biologists/biotechnologists for doing similar things with plants (i.e. modifying plants as chemical
factories to generate materials that would benefit humankind), but obviously our work has piqued your interest since it is
somewhat related to your ideas. Nevertheless, the focus of our work was not on polymer synthesis per se, so it cannot be
directly applied to your Orangina bottle concept. Another body of work that may be more directly relevant to you would be in
the area of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) production. PHB is actually a polymer made by many bacteria from relatively simple
molecular building blocks that can also be found in plants. A number of groups have successfully produced PHB in plants,
so that is an area of research that you might like to look at.
With regard to the bottle idea, it would seem to me that the last few hundred million years of evolution has already led to some
fairly impressive natural packaging. Oranges, coconuts, and bananas all come to mind, but if I understand you correctly, it is
the design/branding of the packaging that is the next step. I could also point out that most plants already generate a plastic-like
outer barrier known as cutin that surrounds most of their tissues (notably the citrus fruits), which is then covered with waxes
produced by the plants' epidermis. Remove that protective packaging (e.g. grate the rind from an orange) and see how long
the fruit stays fresh and moist in your refrigerator! In other words, the fruits themselves elaborate a packaging that probably
more elegantly represents anything that humans could design. Now, if you ask me whether we could change that packaging
for our own foolish sake, I suppose the far-fetched answer might be yes.
One could imagine that one could make an orange in which PHB was deposited in or on top of its epidermis, making a
thicker more plastic-like skin, and I can even imagine arranging for the plant to make an enzyme to degrade the remaining
fruit cell walls upon ripening so that all that the ripe fruit contained was juice. I'll have to leave the screw cap up to your own
imagination!
Finally, although I loved reading your ideas, I hope none of this leaves you with the impression that any of this is what
genetically modified organisms are all about. I know that GMOs have received a lot of bad press, particularly in Europe,
but this is undeserved. There are a great many people who are working to improve the human condition, and the impact of
humans on the environment, via genetic modification of plants. Golden rice is probably the most famous to date, but others
are in the works. I know of people who are likely to soon succeed in increasing the folic acid content of foods, thus providing
a cheap new alternative in the battle against the most common cause of birth defects, dietary folic acid deficiency. Our own
work has identified a way to modify wood so that the pulp and paper process is less damaging to the environment. I firmly
believe that this technology will be of substantial benefit to humans and the environment, and will have few if any
negative impacts.
I hope that some of these comments are useful, or at least somewhat interesting.
Best regards,
c.
Clint Chapple
Department of Biochemistry
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2063
Telephone: 765-494-0494
FAX: 765-496-7213
URL:
http://www.biochem.purdue.edu/faculty/chapple.html
Beste Debbie,
Hierbij de bevestiging voor onze afspraak die op 4 augustus 2005 om 13.00 uur
zal plaatsvinden bij Bickery Food Group.
Tot dan en alvast een fijn weekend.
Met vriendelijke groet,
Bickery Food Group BV
Saskia Hilbrants
Product Manager
Tel: +31 - (0)35 6560244
Fax: +31 - (0)35-6563824
E-mail:
saskia.hilbrants@bickery.nl
Hello Debbie,
I discussed your project with Schweppes and they said to me that you could contact Schweppes directly!
My contact person is Mireille Beij, reachable under the following number: 020-3479194
Unfortunately we could do nothing to support you in your research, but hopefully Schweppes can do some more!
Good luck and thank you for the presentation.
Kind regards,
Bickery Food Group BV
Saskia Hilbrants
Debbie,
As discussed, please find below the directions to our office for our
meeting on Friday at 2 pm. Please note that besides myself, I have also
invited two other people.
Regards,
Mireille Beij
Schweppes International Limited
Debbie,
We are happy to send you our written response regarding your project.
In order to follow up correctly, could you please forward me the address we
can send the letter to.
Thanks and regards,
Jennita Schnieders
Schweppes International Limited
Hello Debbie
I'm getting in touch as I'm currently researching for a documentary series
on the Discovery Channel and in my internet wanderings your Orangina bottle
project caught my eye. The series i'm working on is called 'One Step
Beyond' and it looks at science that's outside the square. I'd love to hear
more about your project - I've read the info on your website - and haven't
had a chance to watch the video with sound yet, but will do.
Would you be interested in having a chat at some stage soon to tell me more
about it? I'm based in Australia - but we're filming stories all around the
world later this year...
It would be great to talk - if you're keen, please let me know a number I
can contact you on and where you're based - so I can work out a convenient
time for both of us.
many thanks
susie
Susie Jones
Researcher - One Step Beyond
Becker Entertainment
Level 1, 11 Waltham Street
Artarmon, Sydney
NSW 2064, Australia
Ph: +61 2 8425 1142
Fx: +61 2 9439 1827
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