NatureWorks LLC is an international company that manufactures

bioplastics Bioplastics are plastic materials produced from renewable biomass sources, such as vegetable fats and oils, corn starch, straw, woodchips, sawdust, recycled food waste, etc. Some bioplastics are obtained by processing directly from natural ...

—

polymers A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic an ...

derived entirely from plant resources—as an alternative to conventional

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...

, which is made from

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

. The commercial quality polymer is made from the

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent—its atom making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. Carbon mak ...

found in simple plant sugars such as corn starch to create a proprietary polylactic acid

polymer A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...

(PLA) which is marketed under the brand name Ingeo. Headquartered in Plymouth,

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, NatureWorks is jointly owned by Cargill and PTT Global Chemical, a Thai state-owned company.

History

In 2001, a joint venture between Cargill and the Dow Chemical Company was formed under the name Cargill Dow LLC and in 2005, Cargill bought out Dow’s interest in the venture. In 2002, a manufacturing facility in Blair,

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

began operations. It is the world's first and largest PLA facility and it supplies NatureWorks' Ingeo biopolymer. The Blair facility slated to increase its Ingeo nameplate capacity to 150,000 metric tons in the first quarter of 2013. In 2007 Cargill, the parent company, entered into a joint venture with Japan's

Teijin is a Japanese chemical, pharmaceutical and information technology company. Its main fields of operation are high-performance fibers such as aramid, carbon fibers & composites, healthcare, films, resin & plastic processing, polyester fibers, produc ...

, which acquired a 50% stake in NatureWorks. The partnership was dissolved in July 2009 when Teijin faced corporate

restructuring Restructuring is the corporate management term for the act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a company for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs. Other reasons ...

in the wake of the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...

. NatureWorks is headquartered in Plymouth,

, but its main manufacturing facility is in Blair,

, with additional offices

Naarden Naarden () is a city and former municipality in the Gooi region in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It has been part of the new municipality of Gooise Meren since 2016. History Naarden was granted its city rights in 1300 (the only t ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

;

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, Japan; and

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

. It was considering building an additional manufacturing plant in

but due to the

2014 Thai coup d'état On 22 May 2014, the Royal Thai Armed Forces, led by General Prayut Chan-o-cha, Commander of the Royal Thai Army (RTA), launched a coup d'état, the 12th since the country's first coup in 1932, against the caretaker government of Thailand, foll ...

and related turmoil it had not committed. Other countries under consideration include

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. In 2013 NatureWorks sold 1 billion pounds of Ingeo. Its competitors in the bioplastics industry include DuPont,

Braskem Braskem is a Brazilian petrochemical company headquartered in São Paulo. The company is the largest petrochemical company in Latin America and has become a major player in the international petrochemical market (8th largest resin producer worldw ...

(BAK), Toray Industries, Lanxess AG, Bayer,

BASF BASF SE () is a German multinational chemical company and the largest chemical producer in the world. Its headquarters is located in Ludwigshafen, Germany. The BASF Group comprises subsidiaries and joint ventures in more than 80 countries ...

, and

Eastman Chemical Company Eastman Chemical Company is an American company primarily involved in the chemical industry. Once a subsidiary of Kodak, today it is an independent global specialty materials company that produces a broad range of advanced materials, chemicals and ...

. NatureWorks hosts a conference called "Innovation takes Root","Innovation Takes Root"
/ref> which brings together Ingeo Polymer users.

Recycling

Ingeo biopolymer bears the

resin identification code The ASTM International Resin Identification Coding System, often abbreviated RIC, is a set of symbols appearing on plastic products that identify the plastic resin out of which the product is made. It was developed in 1988 by the Society of t ...

7 and can be chemically recycled, composted or landfilled. Ordinary home composts cannot break down the polymer, although high-temperature commercial composting systems can. NatureWorks integrated NatureWorks PLA into the recycling system in the United States according to guidelines published by the Association of Plastic Recyclers. It commissioned an independent third party to study PLA's environmental impact, which indicated that PLA was a "neutral contributor in the existing recycling stream and can be effectively sorted using available detection technology".{{cite web, title=NatureWorks® PLA in the Recycling Stream in the United States, url=http://www.plasticredesignproject.org/files/NWRecyclePsntn.pdf, website=The Plastic Redesign Project, access-date=30 January 2015

References

Companies based in Plymouth, Minnesota Bioplastics Manufacturing companies based in Minnesota