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
We believe the long-term future of sustainable biopolymers production from renewable carbon is in bypassing the agricultural step and converting greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide directly into lactic acid.
Recycling as a feedstock
Through mechanical and chemical (hydrolysis) recycling methods, NatureWorks has demonstrated that new Ingeo PLA resin can be made from PLA collected in both post-consumer and post-industrial settings.
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
USDA & TŪV Austria
Certification by multiple 3rd parties that 100% of the carbon in Ingeo comes from renewable resources.
No Genetic Material Verification
Genescan
Annual 3rd party verification that Ingeo biopolymer is free of any genetic material.
Sustainably Grown Feedstocks
ISCC PLUS
3rd party (ISCC) certification ensuring the social & environmental sustainability for the production of our annually renewable agricultural feedstocks.
ISCC PLUS Non-GMO for Technical Markets
This optional add-on ISCC PLUS program extends certification to include a GM-free feedstock for interested customers.
