Meg Sobkowicz is one of the growing number of chemists studying bio-based plastics better than those made from oil. She personally is working on improving the durability of the plastics derived from corn and other plants and using nano sized fibers from cotton to reinforce them.

As explained in the New York Times Bioplastics can offer several benefits such as: reducing greenhouse gases and emissions, minimizing toxic waste, and they can also be biodegradable.

These biopolymers are more and more starting to appear in today’s marketplace Japanese corporations like NEC Corporation, Unitika, and NTT DoCoMo who manufacture cell phones and casings from these bioplastics reinforced with biopolymers. However not all scientists who are creating bioplastics are quick to jump the gun for they appear to caution against overstating their benefits. They reason that it is unlikely that bioplastics would offer advantages in every application.