A small company in Costa Mesa, California, says it has found a cost-competitive way to make plastic from methane in cow manure, reports the Los Angeles Times. “Newlight Technologies Chief Executive Mark Herrema claims his company can make plastics cheaper than traditional alternatives, and he hopes to transform the plastic industry and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” A UC-Santa Barbara professor says Newlight’s reach may be limited by the chore of gathering methane from waste sources when many plastics companies use ethane, extracted from natural gas. The newspaper cites the EPA as saying one-third of methane gas emitted in the United States comes from manure piles or the digestive systems of livestock. “At the moment, Newlight gets its methane from a covered waste pit filled with manure and other runoff from a Tulare County dairy farm.”