Cargill Dow Plans Corn-to-Plastics Plant

January 13

Cargill Dow Polymers will build a commercial-scale plant to produce polylactic acid, a plastic made from corn. Corn growers think plastics demand nationwide could eventually use 500 million bushels of corn per year.

Ground breaking will be held this spring at Blair, NE, site of a Cargill wet milling plant. The new plant will be on line by late 2001 and initially use about 40,000 bushels of corn a day. It will turn corn into polymers, small chips or pellets of plastic-like material that manufacturers then will process into fabrics for clothing and plastics for cups, food containers, packaging and home and office furnishings such as carpets.

Polylactic acid (PLA) applications research has been a priority for several years for corn growers at the state and national levels, says the National Corn Growers Association. PLA fabrics have the feel of silk and durability of polyester. Other PLA products could include plastic wrap and plastic bottles.

If demand for corn-based plastics takes off and more plants are built to use as much as 500 million bushels of corn a year, it will equal current ethanol use of corn that adds about 25 cents per bushel to the price of corn, according to the NCGA. As early as 1994, says NCGA, corn industry leaders began working with Cargill to get funding through Department of Commerce grants to develop commercial PLA.