Trucks and Mayonnaise

We went on two factory tours in the last two days. One was at Hino Motors (an affiliate of Toyota) and the other was at the Kewpie mayonnaise factory. Surprisingly, they were both extremely entertaining and our group learned a lot about effective assembly lines in practice. My favorite part of both was the sustainability measures taken in the mayonnaise factory: first, the factory is ISO 14000 certified. Another initiative the factory has taken is to eliminate waste of the eggs used in production, and over the years the company has expanded to use the shells for calcium supplements and chalk; they also use the egg yolks for emulsification and other food products; finally, the egg membranes are sold to cosmetic, medical product companies and others. I am wondering what Japan is investigating in the way of alternative materials to plastics. In the U.S. there are corn substitutes, but I have my reservations about the long-term repercussions. Is anyone familiar with alternative packaging abroad?