Plastic bottles made from trash? We're going to need the marketing department to work overtime on this one...

But, otherwise, this is really a great idea.

The Chicago Tribune reports this week that PepsiCo has invented "what it calls the world's first plastic bottle made entirely from plant-based, fully renewable resources."

Actually "plant-based, fully renewable resources" sounds a lot better than the explanation in the linked Tribune article, namely, "such renewable materials as switch grass, pine bark and corn husks. The company expects to use other materials, such as orange peels, potato peels, oat hulls and other agricultural byproducts from its own food businesses...." In other words, trash. That kind of diminishes the 'yum' factor, I suppose.

This is a picture of switchgrass. I suggest we start the marketing department with a nice picture of a plant like that one, or a pastoral scene like that one below.

Most plastic bottles these days are made from petroleum. It strikes me that if we can drink from bottles made from the same stuff as oil slicks without even flinching, we can get used to drinking from bottles made from trash. And we can toast an important step on the road to energy independence when we do.