This type of plastic is made from biomass—usually corn—and can degrade naturally in a matter of years. The traditional, petroleum-based variety accounts for about 99 percent of the world’s plastic and much of it will still be decomposing for centuries. He noticed that the biopolymer in the avocado seed was eerily similar to that of corn. Its bestseller is plastic resin, which clients put into their own machines to be molded and shaped into disposable items such as cutlery, plates and bottles. Munguía’s hope is that elsewhere in the world, other types of biomass could also hold the building blocks for plastic.