Sustainable, Renewable Feedstocks for Biopolymers
Nature looks at greenhouse gases like atmospheric carbon as a feedstock, a raw material. It’s what trees, plants, and huge structures like coral reefs, are built from. At NatureWorks, we’re doing the same thing—using our best technologies to turn renewable sources of carbon that’s in the atmosphere into a portfolio of performance Ingeo™ biopolymers.
Circular economy models, like the New Plastics Economy outlined by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation identify decoupling from fossil fuel feedstocks and non-renewable carbon as an integral step in moving toward a more circular, reusable, and sustainable society.
However, the way we go about this decoupling and converting renewable carbon feedstock into biopolmyers like Ingeo matters, and we take a hard look at this in everything that we do. Currently, the first step in transforming atmospheric carbon into Ingeo involves using agricultural crops to sequester the carbon, “fixing” it as simple plant sugars through the process of photosynthesis. This rightfully brings up questions around the sustainability of our feedstocks including agricultural growing practices and land use.
Our Vision for Sustainable Feedstocks
Today: Sustainably grown, local agricultural feedstocks
Today, we use sustainably grown sources of biobased carbon that are locally abundant in the regions where we manufacture Ingeo. This means our lactic acid production can come from fermenting the dextrose or sucrose of cassava, corn starch, sugar cane, or sugar beets.
Industry Developing
We are excited about industry developments for the technology of second-generation lignocellulosic feedstocks, which could support lactic acid production from the sugars of bagasse, wood chips, switch grass, or straw.
Now Assessing: Investing in R&D for direct greenhouse conversion technologies
Recycling as a feedstock
We are cautious about automatically viewing each next generation of feedstock as inherently more sustainable than the previous one. Whether it’s the first generation “bridging feedstock” we use today, industrially sourced corn, or cutting edge direct greenhouse gas conversion, we believe it’s vital to assure the integrity of the sustainability of every feedstock we use.
We’ve partnered closely with select NGOs, brands, and certifiers to create a comprehensive palette of tools for certifying the renewable and sustainable attributes of the current Ingeo feedstocks.
Biobased Carbon Certification
No Genetic Material Verification
Sustainably Grown Feedstocks
More information on sustainable, renewable feedstocks
Certified, sustainable agriculture programs at NatureWorks
Questions on food competition and agricultural land use
