Back in 1967, a young Benjamin Braddock, played by Dustin Hoffman in the classic movie "The Graduate" was given some advice:
"I just want to say one word to you - just one word. Are you listening?"
"Yes sir."
"Plastics."

44 years later - Mike Belliveau has an update:

"Bio-based plastics."

Belliveau is the director of the Environmental Health Strategy Center, a Maine-based nonprofit that promotes clean energy and safer chemicals. He's also one of the leading advocates of a push for locally produced, environmentally friendly plastic.

"Where we are with bio-based plastics now is where we were with petroleum-based products back in the 1920s," said Belliveau. "We're just inventing ways of using these materials for the first time."

About 1% of the world's plastics are currently made with bio-based material nearly all of which comes from corn starch, but, Belliveau says, demand is growing, and according to one assessment, about 90% of all plastics could be replaced with non-petroleum alternatives right now.
Belliveau sees this an emerging bioplastics revolution...one that has enormous potential for Maine:

Mike Belliveau: "Before the end of this year we will be able to hold plastic pellets in our hands that were made from Maine potatoes."
Tom Porter: "You're confident of that?"
MB: "Yes."

Belliveau is also vice-president of the Sustainable Bioplastics Council of Maine, a newly-created trade association that's trying to help Maine gaine a foothold in the biopastics industry. He says scientists at the University of Maine are planning to produce a plastic resin called PLA, which stands for poly lactic acid, using wood chips and potato waste both of which maine has in large supply.

Bioplastics are also touted as environmentally friendly because they're free of the controversial additive found in some plastic items called Bisphenol A, or BPA that many scientists say can impair brain development.

Not everyone agrees. Recent comments by Maine governor Paul LePage reveal a scepticism about the dangers of BPA. While the American Chemistry Council says the science condemning it is not yet reliable.

Steve Russell is vice-president of the council's plastics division.

"The ACC and our members stand behind the assurances of safety that have been provided by the US FDA and governments around the world, and our confidence in the safety of those products is based on the expert reviews by those agencies," Russell said.

Nevertheless, the appetite for alternatives plastics is there, and a number of companies in Maine are interested.

In an industrial park near the popular mid--coast vacation town of Boothbay, a startup called Biovation is making PLA from corn starch which is used to make most commercially available 'green' plastics.

Chief executive Kerem Durdag points to the machine making all the noise.

"What you see over here is what we call the Melt-Blown Line. It's an extruder, you put the polymer in it, the plastic in it, essentially it grinds it," said Durdag.

This Melt-Blown Line has 3,000 nozzles thatforces tiny bioplastic fibres out at high temperatures onto a moving belt, where they become randomly entangled. The end result is a fluffly-looking fiber pad. If these trials are successful - Durdag hopes the padding will be used by the medical industry for wound-care products.

Biovation also makes food packaging from bioplastics, designed to extend the shelf life of fresh fruit by protecting it from harmful bacteria.

"It is a plastic. We use polylactic-based polymers, which are sustainable, they're green, they're biodegradable and it comes from corn starch."

Corn starch today - but what about potato pellets tomorrow?

"If that is possible, and if that happens, what we as a manufacturer will get is a massive amount of pellets made from Maine potatoes, and we can take that and run it through the machine, and that would be fairly exciting," said Durdag.

But, he says that's a big 'If' at the moment. Although the technology to make plastic from potatoes is nearly there, Durdag says there's still a long way to go before manufacturers will start using it.

Any new PLA will have to peform as well as, or better than what is already commercially available. Then there's the matter of cost: corn-based plastic, is now being produced so efficiently out West, that durdag says it's actually cheaper than its petroleum-based equivalent.

Kerem Durdag: "We are manufacturer-agnostic of PLA, we'll use anybody's PLA as long it accomplishes our end goals."
Tom Porter: "But if Maine-based material was available for the same price."
KD: "I'd be all over it, absolutely, I'd be all over it."

For this to happen, Maine would have to construct its own PLA-producing facilities:

One scenario imagines two plants in Maine, one based near a source of potatoes in Aroostock County, and the other near a source of forest products.

These would have significant positive economic impacts in terms of jobs, in Maine," said Durag.

UMaine economist Jonathan Rubin worked on a 2007 study looking at the effects that an in-state bioplastics industry would have on the Maine economy.

A PLA-manufacturing plant is probably going to cost about $200 million to construct, he says, and that's going to require a lot of venture capital, plus some state funding in the form of R&D bonds.

But Rubin says it could lead to the creation of a thousand or more permanent jobs in Maine, plus about another 1,800 temporary construction-related jobs over two years. To be successful, Maine's bioplastics industry must serve markets beyond its borders.

"To the extent that Maine can be a manufacturing production center for the larger New England region, that's where the gains really come in terms of much more significant impact," said Rubin.

And that wider New England market is potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars in sales according to Rubin.