New Technologies Support the Growth of Bio-Plastics

According to a recent article in www.packagingstrategies.com:

Bio-Plastics made from agricultural by-products, is one of the most recent innovations within the plastic packaging industry. The new materials can offer manufacturers the opportunity to reduce carbon footprints and better protect the environment through a reduced dependence on petro-chemicals and other mineral rich packaging materials.

Such materials claim to offer important environmental benefits, reducing fuel consumption by 70% per ton and releasing significantly less carbon into the atmosphere. However, there also exists environmental controversy over the use of valuable and often scarce agricultural land for growing bio-polymers instead of food, which longer term could lead to substantially higher food prices.