Future Bags of Chips May Have the Potatoes on the Outside, Too!

Everybody knows potatoes, some people love them, some people don't. But for the junk food addicts, there are some good news: future bags of chips may actually be made of potatoes, thus bringing the potato out of the bag and into the bag.

A new study by the University of Maine's Margaret Chase Smith Policy suggests that there may be another way for the state's potato industry to benefit from the vegetable. So, in addition to the french fries and mash potatoes, the companies could start producing bioplastics, which are made from plant starch rather than crude oil and petroleum products.

Bioplastics are a form of plastics derived from plant sources such as hemp oil, soy bean oil and corn starch rather than traditional plastics which are derived from petroleum. This is generally regarded as a more sustainable activity, as it relies less on fossil fuel imports and produces less greenhouse emissions.

They can be used in many applications, like recyclable plastic bottles, carpeting, or upholstery fabric. Some countries, like Japan and the UK, even produce "spudware," potato-based plastics silverware.

"I think this is a first step for agriculture to look at new avenues and develop new markets," said Don Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board. He said that the current food crop would not be affected by a potential increase in potatoes demand, as the state has plenty of additional acreage that could meet the demand.

Industry representatives, environmentalists and scientists mostly agree that turning potatoes into plastics makes technological and economic sense for manufacturers and Maine potato growers, even if it's not completely environmentally friendly, since all the energy required in various processes - farm machinery, irrigations, producing fertilizers and pesticides - may still come from fossil fuels.

The construction cost for a bioplastics-producing plant are estimated at around $50 million, but there are still some technical details that must be worked out.