Japanese Industry-Academia Group Makes Commodity-Grade Plastic from CO2

University of Tokyo, Teijin Ltd and Sumitomo Chemical Co researchers spearheaded a team that has developed commodity-grade plastic which is 50% made from carbon dioxide.

In the near future – 2012ish – more environmentally friendly packaging and films.

The process was developed at the University of Tokyo more than 40 years ago, but at the time, the plastic had inadequate heat resistance.

However, improvements were made on the heat-resistant qualities by a current chemistry and biotechnology professor.

The new plastic is also cost-competitive with polypropylene and polyethylene, which make up for more than 60% of the synthetic resin market.

"Sumitomo Chemical and Sumitomo Seika Chemicals Co. will oversee production, with Teijin handling the processing and Mitsubishi Corp. in charge of securing sales channels.

"Keio University, the Tokyo University of Science, and Kanazawa University are also participants in the research group."

Gosh…in about 5 years, maybe Trader Joe's will let me bring things home in a plastic bag again.

And, I wonder how much Tokyo U hopes to make off of this discovery.