ABSTRACT Renewable Materials have become an ever increasing part of our lives. We have become more concerned with protecting the long term health of our environment even as we try to maintain our current living standards. Sugar is produced in large quantities and it is currently being looked at as a substitute feedstock for the production of plastics. This type of plastic often called bioplastic will hopefully replace regular petro plastic as the new environmentally friendly and cost effective substitute. Nations such as Brazil have already embraced this new paradigm shift and reaped the rewards. While other countries such as Jamaica, with a similar climate, and similar means of harvesting sugar may also stand to benefit greatly. …show more content…
Like all plastics, bio-plastics are made from the combination of polymers. A polymer is substance that is comprised of small molecular subunits called monomers. The process of linking these monomer subunits together end to end that creates a polymer. This either involves the process of dehydration, which is the removal of water from the sugar or through polymerization to cause the molecules to link together in chains. From there on molecularly linking polymers together will make a plastic. The sugar in the cane by-products, sugar and molasses, could be used as the monomer in the process to synthesize bio-plastics. The sugar by-products, sugar and molasses, extracted from cane is usually sucrose and from this more than one type of bioplastic could be synthesized. The sugar could be chemically altered into another type before being linked together into a polymer. Or the very order in which the sugar links together could be rearranged. So instead of linking them end to end they could even be linked in varying directions. It is the changing of the combinations in how you link the monomers that would lead to different bio-plastics with differing properties and compositions (Baker C. W. 1990). The plastic can be moulded into different shapes for different purposes and uses whereas the properties could be varied depending on …show more content…
It would be a case where almost all the materials and the production would be local. Jamaica produced between one million three hundred thousand (1.3M) and two million (2M) tons of cane annually between 2005 and 2010 (Sugar Industry Authority 2010). The numbers have changed little since then. The nation already earns significant foreign exchange earnings simply from the production of sugar. Bio plastics continue to be relatively cheap to produce even in comparison to regular plastics, costing less than half as much per unit as compared to petroplastics (Murillo V. FIlho, et a 2011, Chemistry based on renewable materials, H.P. Hindawi Enzyme, section 2.1 ). The nation would stand to benefit significantly from diversifying its sugar sector. More of the crops could be produced to fill the gap left by the falling demand for Jamaican sugar. In addition the production of the plastics the nation needs locally would reduce the nation’s reliance on the importation of some of its raw
2. Sugarcane plantations – The sugarcane plantation was a plantation that had sugar as its main crop. Sugarcane became a popular crop throughout the world. These plantations were all across Brazil. The European workers died quickly while working in the plantations from different diseases.
(p.210). They produced about 25,000 tons of sugar. Barbados produced two tons of sugar per acre. Cane plants basically filled the island, wiping out the forest. Most of the wildlife in the forest disappeared.
I. Revolutions positively acquire the individuals’ equivalent social, commercial, and political opportunities. II. Encouraging societal opportunities were displayed in revolutions within the restored working classes and the adjustments in social classes. A. “New views about power and authority in government were spreading among the Third Estate.
The initial labor for sugarcane fell on Native Americans, but by 1600 95% of Native Americans in the Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean populations were dead due to disease and labor. Because of the decline in the population of Native Americans, the sugar plantations began to use Africans as slaves for slave that soon led to the African Slave Trade. The product of their labor was sent to a European capital to be sold. During those three centuries, sugar was by far the most important of the overseas products. Sugarcane made trade increase throughout the Canary Islands and South America.
Sugarcane especially grew abundantly in the warm, wet climate of the Caribbean. Europeans cleared vast amounts of forests to make way for their plantations and crops. They also brought unintentional plants – weeds that were intermixed in the grain seed (such as dandelion) (Angel, 2012).
The manufacturers were faced with maintaining a high crop yield, but luckily the Caribbean islands provided an ideal location for growing cane sugar. Once plantations were constructed yet another issue confronted the owners, cheap labor. For the plantations to produce large enough quantities of sugar to fulfill the demand, many slaves were necessary; thus, a successful slave industry arose with the aid of these wealthy entrepreneurs who hoped to own successful plantations. The absentee owners in England, Spain, and France became increasingly wealthy as the demand and industry for sugar
Sugarcane is a form of sucrose and used in almost all cultures. It is a historical crop that started in New Guinea. Because it was difficult to grow on European soil, it was very rare. When Columbus made his second voyage to the New World, he brought back sugarcane. Plantations in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica made the production of the crop prosper.
“Our Oceans Are Turning into Plastic… Are We” “Our Oceans Are Turning into Plastic… Are We?” written by Susan Casey makes valid points about humans ruining our land we all call home. Captain Charles Moore traveled the sea more than he traveled on land.
The wealth they created mostly returned to Britain, the products they made were consumed in Britain. African slavery was considered “essential” to the sugar producing system. There created two major triangles of trade, which connected nations of the world Britain, Africa, West Indies and the New World. One important feature of these triangles is human cargoes. The documentary on Big Sugar by Brian McKenna supports Mintz’s ideas by revealing the dark side of working on the plantations, and the terrible working conditions that the labors (or slaves) back then had to suffer.
In the sixteenth century, the only way to obtain sugar was through the
Haitian coffee export quantum has steadily declined from 35,000 tons per year a century ago to less than 20,000 tons per year in the late 1970s and 1980s. Exports increased by 13 percent in 1988 in response to the removal of the export tax. However, they have since declined due to damage from Hurricane Gilbert, rust disease, and other factors. (Weinstein and Segal 87) These data patently showed that Haiti as a well famous coffee exported country and its local people have a large demand to drink it, will very care about the quantity and quality of production.
The reason plastic is used in many products is because it can withstand up to tons of pressure per cm3, is cheap, is durable, and finally, there is no worry for discoloring. But these days, plastic is becoming a major problem the world has to deal with. Plastic is thrown into the ocean, and it is breaking down into very small pieces, and killing marine life, as they mistake those pieces to their prey. As a matter of fact, nearly all plastics are recyclable, but it 's the recycling companies ' machines that refuse to recycle that kind of plastic(eartheasy.com). I. Plastic, what have you done?
Do you think Alice Thornton’s proposal to decentralize the rules and procedures of Cosmo Plastics will work? Alice proposal of decentralizing the rules and procedures in Cosmo Plastics has a bigger chance of working out in a big company with different departments and great number of employees, because then daily operations and decision-making are divided into different authorities in the organization from the top managements, to the middle and lower level managements. Especially when you have this flexibility in work hours, because some departments in the company need constant attention and discipline from the side of employees, decentralizing is needed to divide the controlling process. On another scale, small groups will be formed, employees
The Caribbean is a place where most of the countries share the history. It is a history that is deeply embedded with loss and struggle. Over the course of history, the Caribbean has been through a lot of stages from slavery, colonialism come right down to independence and post-independence. With slavery, the blacks were introduced, then we have the Europeans and of course the Indians came with the indenture ship program. Since the Caribbean has such a diverse array of cultures and ethnic groups, it is expected that these groups will leave their own impact on the society as a whole.