Solutions for cleaner manufacturing and environmental challenges. After more than two decades of success in health care and food production, scientists are now looking for ways to use biotechnology to make manufacturing of common products – like plastic and fuel – cleaner, more efficient, and more sustainable through the use of renewable resources.

How many plastic products can you see right now? While you and your family may be concerned about the enormous use of petroleum products for energy, the plastic products that surround you in your home or office are also made from oil – much of it from overseas. That may be changing forever, very soon.

New plastics are coming into your home made with corn and other plants, not petroleum, via a biotechnology process. Think of the impact on the environment! The plants themselves will be taking carbon dioxide out of the air as they grow and they will help create products that do not add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere in their use or disposal. The result is cleaner air, cleaner water and a cleaner planet for your children.

New fuels like biodiesel and bioethanol are coming on the market. Biodeisel is made by extracting oils from soybeans and other crops. New biodegradable greases and lubricants for the family car are also being made from agricultural oils. Bioethanol can be made from corn, or using new biotech processes, it can be made from agricultural waste products like wheat straw, cornhusks, rice straw, or even grass clippings.

 

Biotechnology is also being applied in more direct ways to environmental cleanup. A process called bioremediation uses microorganisms to reduce, eliminate, or contain contaminants.

How does all this affect your everyday life? Such common products as vitamins, paper and faded blue jeans can now be manufactured with less energy and pollution. Plus every time you take fresh clothes out of the dryer you’re benefiting from the detergent enzymes developed by biotechnology to remove deep stains. These enzymes have replaced the phosphates that used to be a serious pollutant for the nations rivers and streams.

Crops improved through biotechnology not only improve farming efficiency, but also leave behind a softer environmental footprint than traditional agricultural practices. U.S. farmers, growing transgenic pest-resistant cotton, corn, and soybeans, reduced the total volume of insecticides and herbicides they sprayed by more than 8 million pounds per year. Growing biotech crops also reduces soil erosion by up to 90 percent compared to conventional cultivation, saving valuable topsoil, improving soil fertility, and dramatically reducing sedimentation in lakes, ponds and waterways.

 

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