FUJITSU UNVEILS LAPTOP MADE FROM CORN
by Jorge Chapa
Laptops have a long way to go in order to really go green, but Fujitsu has certainly made an interesting attempt with their new corn-based polymer laptop. Launching at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, Fujitsu is finally bringing to the US market a laptop with a casing made out of corn. In case you’re wondering, this biopolymer is based on the same PLA components that are becoming more common for biodegradable plastic beverage cups.
The main component is polylactic acid, also known as PLA, a resin that comes from the fermentation of the raw biomass from plants. PLA by itself is biodegradable, does not generate dioxin when burnt, or other harmful gases. Unfortunately the material still needs a small amount of fossil fuel for it to be able to be used as a laptop housing. However, the PLA-based plastic can be processed after the end of use of the product and by doing so, the corn-based component can safely degrade.
This product does offer a net benefit to the environment, considering the large amounts of heavy metals in a regular machines. Hopefully in the future Fujitsu can adapt this technology to completely eliminate the need of the use of petroleum. For those of you interested in some light reading, follow the link below for some further information on the plastics used in the product.
+ Gadgets go green at Electronics Show
+ Biobased polymers report @ Fujitsu (PDF)
+0
Get Inhabitat Email
That is a great first step, but efforts like this are only substantive if the manufacturer has also developed a program for reclaiming the product for disassembly and reprocessing at the end of its useful life.