Harvesting Plastic - A Minnesota company is turning corn into plastic

Grants | Legacy Digitization | Topics | Business & Industry | Environment | Types | Reports | Interviews | Science | Programs & Series | Morning Edition | Legacy Project Work (2023-2024) |
June 17, 2002
Eugene Cha - Reporter, Pat Gruber - Interviewee, Denise Swink - Interviewee, Bob Elde - Interviewee, Heath Lukatch - Interviewee
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MPR’s Eugen Cha reports on efforts by Minnetonka-based company Cargill and the University of Minnesota to turn corn into plastic. It may give the state a lead in an emerging area of biotech, where the finished products are not medicines, or even crops, but industrial materials like plastic.

Cargill and its partner, Dow Chemical, have invested $750 million to develop the new product, which they call NatureWorks™.

The University of Minnesota has spent $40 million to equip a facility called Biodale, where researchers and companies investigating biotech applications can rent sophisticated scientific equipment.

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