plastic

This week in laptops

Crave presents this week's laptop news, in digest form.

Our Apple rumor of the week: A patent application describing collapsible ports, which would in theory allow for a slimmer laptop, prompted talk of the long-awaited ultraportable MacBook. Elsewhere in the rumor mill, Dell is reportedly poised to launch a 17-inch mobile workstation, the Precision M6300, at the end of the month. The workstation will supposedly include support for up to 8GB of system memory and an optional Blu-Ray optical drive.

In the world of actual products, Fujitsu announced two new tablets: the $999 LifeBook U810, which weighs 1.6 … Read more

The biodegradable laptop

You've seen picnic ware and household items made out of biodegradable plastic. Now, here's a notebook with a biodegradable chassis.

This Fujitsu LifeBook sports a chassis made from a plastic made from cornstarch rather than petroleum. It costs more, but it's green. Put the chassis in a landfill and it will go away over the course of months. Real plastic will take decades.

Producing the cornstarch-based plastic, which comes from a supplier, also results in 15 percent less carbon emissions. Those vials (pictured at left) to the side, by the way, show the progress from corn kernels … Read more

Lean, mean allergy-fightin' machine

It's the height of summer, and for some of us that means allergy hell. Even our fortified caves and vehicles can't keep out all the offensive particles that make life miserable. So it may seem like desperation to you lucky non-sufferers out there, but we're sorely tempted to invest in this "Pro-Aqua" air-cleaning system, which sounds like a combination of a "Scooba" and one of those industrial-strength mosquito machines.

The indoor system improves air and climate quality through wet and dry cleaning mechanisms, including "wet vacuuming, air washing and scenting, inhalation, bed … Read more

What's next for the bring-your-own-bag fad?

Since San Francisco is banning petroleum-based, throwaway plastic bags at store checkout counters, I've wondered if clean-tech companies would rush to supply shops with a bioplastic, biodegradable, two-handle alternative. Other plasticky disposables, like forks at organic takeout eateries, are made from corn, potatoes, and other crops these days.

Alas, things fall apart, especially biodegradable bags holding anything biological (steer clear of my kitchen compost bin). There are plenty of compostable baggies for sandwiches, pooper scoopers, or yard waste. Yet after calling a bunch of bioplastic bag makers, I found that compost-ready bags in shopping-bag sizes don't seem to exist.

Instead, reusable, designer shopping totes are on the rise. Purses for pooches? So… Read more

Green plastics coming from Brazil

Braskem, a large chemical company in Brazil, has begun to produce a version of polyethylene from sugar cane in sample quantities and plans to start exporting it in industrial quantities in late 2009.

Independent firm Beta Analytic certified that the polyethylene produced by Braskem's pilot production line, which is used to make flexible packaging, does come from 100 percent renewable raw materials.

Ultimately, Braskem could produce 200,000 tons of the stuff a year.

Green plastic is becoming big business. A few U.S. start-ups such as Cereplast have produced resins for biodegradable forks and drinking cups. More recently, … Read more

Organic-plastic company gets $15 million

Why make a shampoo bottle out of petroleum products when it can be formed out of agricultural-waste products? That's the premise behind Segetis, which today said it has raised $15 million.

The Minneapolis-based Segetis is one of a number of outfits trying to displace petroleum in household products like countertops, bottles and other items. Using organic matter cuts down on pollutants in the manufacturing process and makes recycling far more feasible.

Organic plastics have historically cost more than their petroleum counterparts, but the rising price of oil, coupled with other factors, is making organics more palatable.

Other companies in … Read more

MIT looks into shape shifting plastic

Researchers at MIT and Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers in Germany have come up with a plastic that can assume three different shapes when different levels of heat are applied.

At room temperature, for instance, a plastic tube might have a diameter of 4.5 millimeters. Heat it to 40 degrees Celsius and it might go 6.8 centimeters. Heat it again to 60 Celsius and it might contract to a size between the two other diameters. You could also get plastic sheets that form shapes at one elevated temperature and then anchor themselves at a higher temp. The … Read more