Jointly set up by Taiwan-based Wei Mon Industrial Co. (WMI), U.S.-based NatureWorks LLC and the U.S .Grains Council, the ecological center educates consumers on PLA (polylactic acid), a plant-based plastics alternative.

“PLA is a product made from plant material ...and it is annually renewable as opposed to oil, which is a fixed deposit,” explained Peter C. Clydesdale, Asia Pacific managing director of NatureWorks LLC, the company that created the proprietary polylactide polymer.

“PLA is very versatile. Besides its use in a variety of packaging products, it can also be used in the manufacturing of eyeglass frames, clothing, cell phone covers, autoparts, medical equipment, and even urns,” said Jack Huang, vice president of WMI’s Biodegradable Materials Division.

Although NatureWorks has chosen corn as their main source for PLA, Clydesdale explains that PLA can be made from any plant that has starch, like sugar cane or tapioca.

Also, PLA requires a lot less fossil fuel to produce, meaning that its “carbon footprint” — the amount of greenhouse gases that go into the atmosphere — is a lot smaller than that of oil-based plastic materials, he continued.

According to Clydesdale, PLA is compostable, which means that if it is subjected to right heat or the right temperature conditions it will biodegrade.

For him, the success of PLA is quite clear. “Particularly because global warming is such an issue with consumers around the world today, people want to buy something now that has less of an impact on the environment.” WMI is the exclusive distributor in Taiwan of NatureWorks PLA, which it markets as Nature Green.

The company was originally established to manufacture and market concrete piping materials and to construct water supply pipelines, sewerage systems, and land development. But, WMI’s venture into the environmental realm was perhaps inevitable.

As Huang explains, “Our president used to be very curious as to why every time it rains in Taiwan it would flood. Then one time when he went to a site he discovered that the pipes were all clogged with dumped plastic bottles and packaging.”

Since that first discovery some eight years ago, WMI has been a major presence in the country’s environmental and biotechnology industries. But for all of the environmental benefits of PLA, Huang points out, “We think it is a shame that Taiwan is the number one country in the world to export PLA products, but little or none is sold in the domestic market.”

“In Taiwan, recycling efforts are still in their basic stages...There is still a lot left to do to educate consumers on the importance of using plant-based packaging and products in order to preserve the environment,” he added.

And this is precisely what WMI sets out to do in the country, starting with the ecological center, which aims to establish a “direct contact with our end user,” according to Sara Sun, assistant manager at WMI’s Environmental Materials Division.

The ecological center’s inauguration marks the first time that the annual Ingeo NatureWorks Earth Month’s worldwide events take place in Taiwan.

The center, which will be a fixture for the next five years in the northern Taipei County landmark, is open every day between the hours of 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Now in its third year, the Ingeo NatureWorks Earth Month started yesterday and ends on June 5, World Environment Day. It is a global event that promotes innovation and nature-friendly choices to everyday living.

Established in 2001 as a privately-held, independently managed subsidiary of Cargill, NatureWorks LLC offers a variety of commercially available greenhouse-gas-neutral polymers derived from annually renewable resources.

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