Researchers at Cornell University have devised a process to make plastic from citrus fruits and carbon dioxide. They developed a catalyst to cause a reaction between oil from orange peels and carbon dioxide that produces a new polymer with characteristics similar to polystyrene.
“Almost every plastic out there, from the polyester in clothing to the plastics used for food packaging and electronics, goes back to the use of petroleum as a building block,” (professor Geoffrey) Coates observes. “If you can get away from using oil and instead use readily abundant, renewable and cheap resources, then that’s something we need to investigate. What’s exciting about this work is that from completely renewable resources, we were able to make a plastic with very nice qualities.”