To survive, Mr Huang maintained his day job with the Manhattan office of a Taipei-based plastics importer.

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Current cellulose based plastics include large amounts of petroleum-based additives, which results in a low plant component ratio.

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Dr Schmidt says that various firms are now testing his feather-based plastics for use in such things as biodegradable nappies and home insulation.

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Moreover, he estimates that the coating will enable manufacturers to do away with the big plastic caps currently used, saving about 25, 000 tons of petroleum-based plastics each year.

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For example, food vendors in the main Olympic Park will use compostable packaging made mainly from starch and cellulose-based bio-plastics.

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New technologies developed by a UK-based company Symphony Environmental Technologies are, they say, making plastics far more eco-friendly.

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Nanocor , a subsidiary of Illinois-based AMCOL International , is the leading producer of nano-composite plastics.

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The Midland, Michigan-based company still gets 40% of its revenues from basic commodity chemicals and plastics.

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