GHG Savings

At BiologiQ we are committed to preserving the quality of life we all enjoy here on the planet. Excessive reliance on fossil fuels over the past 100 years has created worldwide concerns about changes in climate, long-lived pollution, and the fact that fossil fuel in general is a finite resource.

We make plastic from annually renewable starch (ESR plastic resin) rather than petroleum to address the many valid concerns.
Mixing BiologiQ’s ESR resins with any of the petroleum-based plastic resins has dramatic and immediate effects on the carbon emissions (CO2) that ultimately affect the growing “greenhouse gas” problem. Our resins can be used as a “drop-in” replacement for a portion of polyethylene, polypropylene or polystyrene, etc. No special equipment is required for manufacturers to use our resins and there is no increase in labor costs. It simply works.

ESR's Environmental Impact on Greenhouse Gas emissions

To quantify the dramatic effect that replacing 25% of the traditional polyethylene to make bags with BiologiQ’s ESR can have on carbon emissions, take the following example: If for every kilogram of polyethylene produced, 2 kg. of CO2 is emitted; and if for every kilogram of ESR resin produced, 0.38 kg of CO2 is emitted: Then we would realize a 1.62 kg reduction in CO2 for every kg of polyethylene that is replaced with ESR.

In addition to the direct replacement of polyethylene, adding ESR provides increased strengthen to the film so that the thickness of thin films can often be reduced by 25%.

Replacing 25% of the polyethylene in plastic films and reducing the thickness by 25% would result in a reduction of 49 Million Metric Tons of CO2.

With this data for CO2 emission reductions, we can use the EPA’s “Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator” to calculate various scenarios and how using BiologiQ’s ESR would benefit the environment

To summarize...

Achieve a 1.62 KG reduction of CO2 emissions for every kg of LDPE that is replaced with ESR.*

Replacing 25% of polyethylene with ESR in 56 million metric tons of plastic film could result in a reduction of 49 million metric tons of CO2.  The same effect as removing the emissions from 10,350,445 cars!**

* CO2 amounts shown are calculated based on data from third parties which are referenced in BiologiQ's detail LCA report which can be supplied upon request.
** GHG equivalents are calculated using the EPA's Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator.

The lifecycle of plastic

A simple flow chart of a plastic product typically looks like the following:

The typical flow chart of BiologiQ’s ESR looks like the following: