The figures surrounding plastic are astounding. About 200 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide every year, and more than 50% of them are not recycled. Petroleum-based products, including plastic, comprise almost 20% of the world's total world petroleum production, contributing significantly to the emissions of harmful greenhouse gases and thus global warming.

Inside a research lab at NEC Corporation, just outside Tokyo, works Dr. Masatoshi Iji, a man at the forefront of research into bioplastics. Bent over a laboratory bench, he is chopping up a bioplastic resembling a wooden shaft into very fine fibres.

Dr. Iji is researching the future of bioplastics a material which, at first glance, appears to be the stuff of magic. Making plastic out of renewable raw materials, such as corn or potato, instead of oil was dreamt about by scientists and environmentalists since the process was first developed in the 1950s.

But there was a problem.

Most bioplastic is only suitable for limited uses, such as the common plastic spoon in your local coffee shop. Why? Because bioplastics don't stand up well to harsh environments like extremes of heat or cold, which makes their function limited to relatively mundane uses.

NEC, however, had other plans. In line with its policy on corporate social responsibility, it realised that by increasing the amount of bioplastics it used in its electronic components, it could use less petroleum-based plastics in its products. Not only that, NEC could license the core technology, while contributing to the environment at the same time.

Typically of NEC, it set about the hard task of funding the long-term research needed to achieve this goal. It attracted Dr. Masatoshi Iji to its Fundamental and Environmental Research Laboratories and has supported him for the past five years in the development of this technology.

Three years ago he discovered that adding the fibre of an innocuous woody plant called kenaf to the production of bioplastics would give it the heat-resistant properties it needed to house mobiles and PCs. But there is another benefit to the use of this fast-growing plant. Kenaf absorbs CO2, global-warming gas, at three times the rate of normal plants from the atmosphere. In other words, a hectare of kenaf will absorb two to three times more carbon as a hectare in the Amazon forest. No wonder Dr. Iji is excited.

"We had never foreseen that kenaf would have such amazing characteristics – to make bioplastics this heat-resistant and strong. We were absolutely delighted," he says.

Dr Iji is motivated by more than pure science however.

"When I was a young boy, I was raised in the countryside outside Tokyo. Gradually the trees disappeared – everything so rapidly urbanized. It made me deeply sad. I began to wonder if I couldn't do something to mitigate between the environment and the march of civilization. One way to resolve this was though technology." That's actually why Dr. Iji says he became a chemist at NEC, a company normally associated more with electronics than chemistry. He experienced first hand that NEC was committed to the preservation of the environment.

Now the research has paid off. The launch this year of NEC's highly successful "Eco" mobile is made from materials, 90% of which are from biomass content, including kenaf and other special biomass-based additives. Marketing tests have shown the mobile to be especially appealing to environmentally-conscious consumers. It's just as well, given that green-consumer advocacy group Co-op America recently reported that over 25% of American consumers are now actively buying environmentally-friendly products.

But NEC hasn't stopped there. It will begin to form the housings of NEC's personal computers from bioplastics in 2007.

Furthermore, they have developed a new intelligent shape memory bioplastic by modifying the chemical structure of the material. "We believe wearable electronics are the future," says Iji. He calls these plastics 'intelligent' – which could translate into thinner and smaller cell phone and computers, shaped to suit our bodies.

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