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Inspired by nature: Dell debuts plastic made from air

This fall, computer giant Dell is debuting a new plastics technology that may represent its most innovative sustainable packaging project yet.

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Used to protect the finish on its notebook computers during shipping, new carbon-neutral plastic bags—constructed from start-up company Newlight Technologies, LLC’s AirCarbon™ material—are literally made from air.

Explains Newlight co-founder and CEO Mark Harrema in a video on Newlight’s partnership with Dell (“Dell AirCarbon Plastic—Made from Air, Not Oil”), “Almost all plastics today come from fossil fuels. So the difference with AirCarbon is that it is made from air and carbon that we would otherwise be breathing.

“Every single thing that you see [in nature] that is green, that’s all produced by pulling carbon out of the air. So we do precisely the same thing. It’s all around us, we just found a way to pull it out of an airstream and turn it into a plastic molecule.”

During the manufacturing process, Newlight captures air and carbon from industrial sources of greenhouse gas emissions and directs them into its conversion reactor. Next, the air-based input stream is put in contact with Newlight’s biocatalyst, which separates carbon out of an air stream. Lastly, the isolated carbon is reassembled and linked together into a long chain thermopolymer to make AirCarbon.

According to Oliver Campbell, Dell’s Director of Procurement for Packaging and Packaging Engineering, Dell began developing the new packaging with Newlight in October 2013. The bag is designed to be the same size as the one previously used, but may be modified to incorporate a carry handle, “so it can be repurposed if the customer desires,” says Campbell.

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