As reported in HFN, February, 2002, Cargill Dow, a privately held company and a partnership between one of the world’s largest grain merchants and the world’s largest chemical producers, has developed a profitable method to run corn products into a plastic pellet to make fiber for carpet, mattresses, pillows, sheets, wall paper, drapes, towels, upholstery, and more.

Utilizing the surplus of corn in this country, the company believes that it can make a pound of fiber called NatureWorks for about 70 cents a pound, compared with $5 for conventional, fossil fuel based plastic. NatureWorks comes from a renewable source that requires 20 to 50 percent less energy to produce and can be recycled back into the environment. This is considered a bonus for the carpet industry, which aims to reduce it high amounts of landfill waste.

Interface Flooring Systems unveiled the first commercial samples for carpet tile made from the fiber at NeoCon 2001

Carpet made with NatureWorks fiber will completely degrade into moisture and carbon dioxide when put into a compost facility. It will not degrade when used in the home, because that process requires temperatures so high the living space would be uninhabitable.

The label will have patriotic appeal. Consumers will know that the product came from corn grown in the United States. The product also offers ultraviolet protection and would have an application for outdoor furniture. Another benefit is its anti inflammable quality.

At Heimtextil2002, Cargill Dow introduced pillows, duvets and mattress samples made from its corn-based fiber. The chemical process involves harvesting corn to make starch and converting that starch to sugar. Next, microorganisms break the sugar into smaller pieces, forming lactic acid. When these molecules are heated and treated with a chemical, they form a polymer, which can be melted into pellets for fiber.

Chemists have known about this process since at least the 1940s. Until now it has only been used for high grade products, like sutures and body implants..

Company executives say the only limitation on this process is that the demand, in the billions of pounds, already outstrips the supply, though manufacturers are just learning about the product. The potential market is even greater. The carpet industry alone uses 3 billion pounds of polymer a year.

Talk

From How We Choose to Be Happy by Rick Foster & Greg Hicks

Learning Appreciation

Choosing appreciation can become as fundamental to your life as eating and sleeping. It is simple in practice but requires heightened personal awareness. The three steps of this exercise suggest a way to find what you truly appreciate and how to act on your feelings.

1. With a timer set on five minutes, speed write a list of everything you appreciate. Dig down and empty your brain onto the paper. Avoid self censoring. Don’t worry about being silly. Your list will probably include simple items as well as bigger ones like relationships, life experiences, and physical.

   When the timer sounds, stop and allow yourself to feel whatever emotions you may be having. Pay attention to those feelings. What do they tell you?

2. Review your list and make a note next to each item. Decide whom you need to appreciate. You may want to thank a higher source for the kind of life you lead or the people who have most influenced your life. And don’t forget to appreciate yourself for being who you are.

3. Right now, what is there to appreciate in the moment? Try to deepen your awareness of the present. Each part of this exercise should provide you with a deeper consciousness, a meta awareness of what you appreciate and how you need to express that appreciation. Try doing this exercise every couple of weeks. See what happens.

Published: April 8, 2002

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