Designers - Have you heard of Bio Plastics?

Bioplastic simply refers to plastic made from plant or other biological material instead of petroleum. It is also often called bio-based plastic.

A little less petroleum, a lot more sustainable plastic

For people to make smarter material design decisions, sustainable plastic alternatives have to preserve or even build upon the performance characteristics of the original. They must be competitively priced and have unique, genuine advantages that support making a material switch.

Luckily, there are many paths to achieving a more sustainable plastic, and reducing the proportion of petroleum-based feedstock by even small margins can go a long way toward making plastics more sustainable. From slowing input into methane-belching landfills to leaving more greenhouse-gas emitting petroleum in the ground, even small additions of renewable, biobased content can help to drastically reduce harmful emissions.

If what you make means everything to you, make sure you can tell your customers the story of a product that is part of an environmental solution, not a continuation of the environmental problem. Finding the right sustainability strategy for your product means your company is playing a part in reducing the release of greenhouse gases and easing our reliance on non-renewable resources. So, which strategy is the right one for you?

http://www.greendotbioplastics.com/why-sustainable-plastics/

A list of other manufacturers can be found here.