Did you know that 86% of plastic water bottles used in the United States end up either as litter or in landfills as trash?  These bottles sit unchanged in landfills, for centuries, squandering our limited resources.  It is estimated that in the United States, we use 1.5 million barrels of crude oil a year toward producing the huge demand for plastic water bottles alone!  Becoming independent of foreign crude oil is a growing trend in the United States, with the long term goal of becoming totally independent from crude.  Scientists have already figured out how to change one of our everyday foods, corn, into gasoline, reducing demand on crude oil; but the possibilities do not end there.

Corn is already being used to help lessen gas consumption in the United States.  Biofuels have been changing the way we fill up our cars and help us become more energy independent.  But the next step in using corn as an alternative to petroleum will be the corn based plastic bottle.  Corn based plastic bottles from New Wave Environmental will degrade in just 80 days in a compost heap.  This simple new technology, combined with a simple at-home water filtration system could significantly reduce our needs for petroleum based plastics!

This entry is filed under Earth Friendly. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.