Metabolix (MBLX) was downgraded to Hold rating from Buy at Jefferies. Price target slashed to $14 from $32 and FY 2008 eps estimates cut to loss of (1.50) from loss of (0.050).

great IPO

Bio Plastics

green, potential sales growth

future McDonalds Contract?

From: The Independent
"But what's really clever about Mirel is the way it is "grown". Most modern bioplastics are manufactured by extracting starch from maize or other crops and fermenting it to produce an acid, which then undergoes a series of chemical treatments to create a plastic polymer.

The scientists at Metabolix have engineered microscopic bacteria to do all that work for them. They add sugar from the maize, as well as oxygen, and watch the microbes swell as tiny plastic particles form inside them. Using a secret process, the particles are then harvested to create the pellets that can be moulded into a range of products.

"Mirel has the physical properties to be a useful alternative to most traditional plastics," says Barber. "But initially we're focusing on disposable items, such as razors, plastic bags and packaging, which use so much plastic and just get thrown away."
Mirel is different. "It will break down in almost any environment, including soil, in industrial or domestic compost, or even in rivers and seas," says Barber"



from the Metabolix website:
"In the near future, Metabolix will produce PHA Natural Plastics DIRECTLY IN NON FOOD CROP PLANTS to provide cost-competitive alternatives to such widely used plastics as polyethylene, polystyrene, polypropylene, and PET, and useful raw materials for a variety of currently important chemicals. These new plastics, however, will be agriculturally produced from annually renewable resources and can be incinerated or composted with no net increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide over their lifecycle, including harvesting, isolation, and incineration or composting."

thinking of buying

app killer par excellence

lots of risks and delays to the factory being built to manufacture plastic.