This is so cool:

IBM researchers on Tuesday said they have discovered a way to make Earth-friendly plastic from plants that could replace petroleum-based products tough on the environment.

The breakthrough promises biodegradable plastics made in a way that saves on energy, according to Chandrasekhar “Spike” Narayan, a manager of science and technology at IBM’s Almaden Research Center in Northern California.

Almaden and Stanford University researchers said the discovery could herald an era of sustainability for a plastics industry rife with seemingly eternal products notorious for cramming landfills and littering the planet.

“This discovery and new approach using organic catalysts could lead to well-defined, biodegradable molecules made from renewable resources in an environmentally responsible way,” IBM said in a release.

Imagine how much our petroleum usage will decrease if it wasn’t needed for plastic. Think of how much less space will be wasted in landfills by the never-degrading current plastics.

But the best part is who discovered this – IBM. There’s a lot less chance of the oil industry trying to silence them and hide the discovery than if it was some little lab no one ever really heard of. That means we stand a chance to really see this become a reality.