Anyone concerned about all those plastic water bottles filling up the country's landfills might look to an Iowa dairy for a solution.
Clarinda, Iowa-based Naturally Iowa has been making its own bottles out of polylactic acid, or PLA, which is produced from corn and is biodegradable.
The operation got a boost Tuesday when the U.S. House announced that all of its dining facilities will switch to Virginia spring water packaged in the Naturally Iowa bottles.
The House facilities sell more than 100,000 bottles of water a year.
Hill staffers are paying $1.60 each for the new bottles, 10 cents more than the traditional bottled water. The chief administrative officer of the House said the extra cost is worth the environmental benefits.
Unlike petroleum-based plastic water bottles that can take decades to break down, the PLA bottles are biodegradable in less than a year and can be composted even quicker.
Bottles recovered in House dining facilities will go straight into a composting stream and can be turned into high-end potting soil in about three months.
"The containers' end," said William Horner, Naturally Iowa CEO, "is just as important as where they come from."
The corn-based resin used for the bottles comes from a Blair, Neb., plant run by a subsidiary of Cargill, Horner said.
The switch to corn-based packaging is part of a greater effort to make the Capitol more "green" and fit with provisions in the most recent farm bills.
Those measures require federal agencies to give preferential treatment to products made from plant materials.
Other examples of such products on display at a Tuesday press conference included corn-based writing pens and "soy toilet scrub."
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