why is bio-degradable plastic made out of corn starch costlier than regular plastic. as the prices of corn starch is much lower than prices of crude oil.
2006-09-20 22:47:55 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Engineering
Your assumption that corn starch is cheaper than crude oil is incorrect. On a molecule for molecule basis, crude oil has much of the carbon based molecules needed for making plastics than does an equivalent mass of corn starch.
In addition, it takes energy in the form of chemical fertilizers, fuel for farm equipment, and energy to process corn all add to the costs.
In addition, food has a higher instinsic value than oil.
And finally, the oil based plastics, have tremendous economy of scale, in the production processes.
2006-09-21 14:05:44 · answer #1 · answered by richard Alvarado 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
industry is set up to make the petro plastic, if they were to permanently change over the cost should go down.
2006-09-20 22:51:01 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
confusing issue. do a search from yahoo and bing. it may help!
2014-12-04 15:30:00 · answer #3 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋