New Food Service Alternative from Annually Renewable Resources Unveiled for Use in Major Venues

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TO ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS:

New Food Service Alternative from Annually Renewable Resources Unveiled for Use in Major Venues

MINNESOTA, MINNETONKA, Mar. 5 -/E-Wire/-- Marking a major milestone for large sporting and entertainment venues, Cargill Dow LLC and Biocorp, Inc. have joined forces to introduce a new, renewable resource-based food service option that competes with traditional materials on a performance and environmental basis.

Premiered at Womadelaide, in Australia, clear, cold-drink cups made entirely from Cargill Dow's NatureWorks(TM) PLA, a new plastic made from annually renewable resources such as corn, will soon find their way into other major venues around the world. The new cold drink cup has competitive physical properties with petroleum-based plastics, with the added environmental benefit of being fully compostable. Therefore, along with Biocorp's biodegradable plates, cutlery, hot drink cups and straws, it can simply be thrown away with the food waste and transported to the appropriate commercial or municipal composting facility to biodegrade into water, carbon dioxide and organic material. Compostability makes products particularly attractive in venues where the waste stream can be controlled. With these materials, the potential exists for creating a zero waste venue.

According to Frederic Scheer, chairman of the board for Biocorp, large venues are constantly looking for ways to better meet their environmental responsibility while minimizing disposal costs.

"There is a real need, and in some cases a legislative mandate, to reduce the impact of waste on the environment,' said Scheer. "However, it is not possible to economically separate conventional food service items in order to divert the food wastes from landfills and incinerators. That is not the case with the cold drink cups made from NatureWorks PLA and other Biocorp products. We estimate that the ability to fully compost the food scraps allows venues to realize up to 35% cost savings when compared to landfill options.

Developed by Cargill Dow, NatureWorks(TM) PLA technology produces the renewable resource-based resin that can be used in everyday items such as clothing, cups, food containers, candy wrappers, as well as home and office furnishings. The revolutionary technology allows the company to "harvest' the carbon plants, like corn, remove from the air during photosynthesis. This is achieved by tapping into the carbon stored in plant starches, which can be broken down into natural plant sugars. The carbon and other elements in these natural sugars are then used to make plastic, called polylactide (PLA) through a process of simple fermentation and separation. By replacing petroleum as the feed stock with an annually renewable resource, NatureWorks PLA uses 20 to 50 percent less petroleum than comparable plastics.

"NatureWorks PLA's unique blend of physical properties make it a natural fit for replacing petroleum-based materials in highly specified applications, such as major venues,' said Jim Hobbs, business unit leader- packaging for Cargill Dow. "Biocorp and Cargill Dow have teamed up to provide venues with a new solution for solving their waste disposal problems.'

The resins offer a unique combination of performance properties, including high stiffness, superior clarity and gloss, dead-fold, grease resistance, specific processing advantages, as well as unique flavor and aroma barrier properties. Initially targeted for beverage and food packaging applications, NatureWorks PLA should be able to seamlessly integrate into existing food service operations.

"The bottom line is that the solution must work for the venue and the environment,' Scheer continued. "Through our relationship with Cargill Dow, we believe that we are truly able to offer our customers the best of both worlds.'

Biocorp recently supplied all the compostable cutlery and the biodegradable bags used at the Summer Olympic Games in Sydney Australia, enabling the recycling and composting of 75% or roughly more than 5.7 million pounds of waste generated at the Games. Founded by Scheer in 1996, Biocorp is the world's leading developer and manufacturer of biodegradable products, including lawn and leaf bags, bin liners, and food serviceware such as cutlery, cups, straws, lids and plates. Its products are used in 17 countries around the world by over 1,000 businesses, institutions and cities. Biocorp products are fully compostable and meet stringent international scientific standards. Biocorp is based in Redondo Beach, California.

Based in Minnetonka, Minn., Cargill Dow is a 50:50 joint venture between Cargill Incorporated and The Dow Chemical Company. It is the first company to offer its customers a family of polymers derived entirely from annually renewable resources with the cost and performance necessary to compete with traditional fibers and packaging materials. The company has achieved this breakthrough by applying its unique NatureWorks technology to the processing of natural plant sugars to create a proprietary polylactide polymer (PLA). Future applications of the technology could include use in injection blow molded bottles, foams, emulsions and chemical intermediaries.

(TM) Trademark of Cargill Dow LLC

Cargill Dow LLC, Mike O''Brien, 952/742-0523, Michael_O''[REDACTED-EMAIL] or Biocorp Inc., Steve Mojo, 973/772-5007, [REDACTED-EMAIL]

http://www.cargilldow.com

http://www.biocorpusa.com

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