Corn on the Job
NatureWorks’ corn-based plastic offers a renewable alternative to petroleum-based products.
The next time you’re at a Minnesota Timberwolves basketball game or other Target Center event, take an extra minute to consider the clear plastic cup you’re drinking from.
Cups at the Target Center these days are made from 100 percent field corn rather than oil, thanks to Minnetonka- based Nature-Works PLA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Minnesota-based Cargill. What’s more, the Target Center and the Timberwolves are part of a growing list of organizations, companies, and well-known brands worldwide that are signing on for NatureWorks’ cups and plastic packaging. Its products have been adopted by grocery chains in Europe and can be found in more than 7,000 grocery stores worldwide. Wal-Mart, for example, rolled out new packaging in November for four product areas: fruit and vegetable boxes, bread bags, donut boxes, and gift cards. The Wall Street Journal, one of a number of national news media outlets taking note of NatureWorks, reports that those four products alone translate into 100 million plastic containers a year—or the equivalent of 800,000 gallons of gasoline.
Not surprisingly, the folks at NatureWorks are pleased with the company’s growth. “With major brand owners such as Wal-Mart seeing the value of our products, our business has moved to [a position] where we are mainstream rather than an interesting novelty,” says Ann Clark Tucker, the company’s director of public affairs and communications. “We have moved from research to retail.”
Clark Tucker points out that the company’s timing couldn’t be better, given a sharp surge in plastic costs that has been driving up the price of product packaging. Kraft Foods announced last November that it would increase the price of many products by an average of nearly 4 percent, thanks to rising energy and packaging costs caused by higher global oil prices.
How do the company’s products work? NatureWorks produces and sells a renewable resource-based resin derived entirely from the sugar found in common field maize or corn. A plastics “bio-factory” in Blair, Neb., produces the products.
While some industry observers are still skeptical of corn-based plastic, others are firm believers. As Larry Johnson, director of the Center for Crops Utilization Research at Iowa State University, recently told the Los Angeles Times, “Anything you can make out of petroleum, I can make out of corn and soybeans.”
Although the privately held company does not disclose sales figures, it did report that sales grew 34 percent in 2004, and Clark Tucker notes that sales in the first half of 2005 had doubled over the same period in 2004.
— Angelo Gentile