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Sustainable Solutions: Overview

Sustainability has been eloquently defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development as "development that meets the needs of the present world without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." It represents an enormous challenge for a world that is placing ever greater demands on the earth that supports us.

Today, the value of plastic products is over $300 billion per year in the U.S. alone, yet virtually none of this is sustainable. Current polymer materials are nearly all derived from petrochemical sources and the industry is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, both in the production of plastics and, when they are incinerated, at the end of their useful life.

Metabolix Mirel Bioplastics, on the other hand, are ultimately derived from sunlight, carbon dioxide and water through the process of photosynthesis. Their promise is that they offer a sustainable, renewable alternative to petroleum-based products while, at the same time, providing equal or better performance. Bioplastics, currently produced through fermentation from natural sugars and oils, are enormously versatile and can be used to make a wide range of products - providing alternatives to over 50% of the plastic materials used today. Replacing traditional plastic products with Mirels can both cut down on the energy needed for manufacturing and help reduce waste, improve air quality, conserve petroleum supplies, and reduce cleanup costs, thus increasing the options for plastics management in our society. At the end of their useful life, Bioplastics can be handled conventionally and recycled, landfilled, or incinerated, or they can be returned to nature through biodegradation.

In the near future, Metabolix will produce Mirel Bioplastics directly in non-food crop plants to provide cost-competitive alternatives to such widely used plastics as polyethylene, polystyrene, polypropylene, and PET, and useful raw materials for a variety of currently important chemicals. These new plastics, however, will be agriculturally produced from annually renewable resources and can be incinerated or composted with no net increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide over their lifecycle, including harvesting, isolation, and incineration or composting.