A biodegradable notebook
5 Jun 2002
Fujitsu has developed what it claims is the world's first notebook computer housing to use plant-based biodegradable plastic.
This technology will be used for some of the components in Fujitsu's FMV-BIBLO NB computer, and Fujitsu expects to apply it to the entire computer housing in fiscal 2004.
Fujitsu's newly developed biodegradable plastic is based on a polylactic acid polymer that is derived from corn starch, potatoes or other plants.
The resulting plastic has about the same strength and rate of shrinkage as PC/ABS plastic. Should the product in which it is used end up in a landfill, the plastic is naturally metabolised by micro-organisms into CO2 and water.
Better yet, Fujitsu says that the new material takes about half the energy to produce than conventional plastic components.
