Locking up greenhouse gas in ingredients that go into products can be costly compared with petroleum-based options and presents hurdles to building out enough infrastructure to capture emissions. Even so, big companies are increasingly willing to pay a so-called green premium<\/a> for products that help reduce their carbon footprints by seeking alternatives to plastic and other materials made with petroleum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Origin Materials<\/a> Inc. and Newlight Technologies Inc. are trying to meet that demand by bringing factories online that use captured emissions to manufacture materials used to make products including clothes, tires and plastic bottles. The two companies have signed deals with Target Corp., Ford Motor<\/a> Co. and other companies hoping to reduce emissions in supply chains and from the use of their goods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf we could use carbon emissions as a resource to create useful products, then potentially we could create a consumer-driven pathway to reducing carbon in the air,\u201d said Newlight Chief Executive Mark Herrema. Sourcing and transporting raw inputs and captured CO2 are crucial to a product\u2019s so-called carbon-negative credentials, meaning more CO2 is stored than created. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Herrema said he expects Newlight\u2019s costs to fall as production scales up, adding the Huntington Beach, Calif.-based company\u2019s foodware products are already priced competitively with other sustainable options. He said there are many sources for emissions, but more infrastructure to capture them is needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Newlight in 2020 opened its first commercial-scale factory in Huntington Beach. It manufactures foodware, such as cutlery, bowls and straws, for Shake Shack<\/a> Inc., Walt Disney<\/a> Co. and Hyatt Hotels<\/a> Corp. among others. Newlight said the factory has produced more than 50 million foodware units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company took about a decade to develop a process using microbes that suck up methane or carbon dioxide to grow a biological material called polyhydroxybutyrate, which is used to make biodegradable resins that can replace plastic. The private company sources captured emissions from dairy farms, ethanol plants and landfills, and is expanding into coal mines and exploring direct-air capture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNature\u2019s favorite food source is greenhouse gas,\u201d Mr. Herrema said. \u201cDo what nature does, turn it into useful goods.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The startups are taking aim at chemicals that are an essential part of many consumer goods. The sector is the third-largest industrial source of greenhouse gas emissions globally and is on pace to produce more unless new technologies go into widespread use, according to the International Energy Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Making chemicals that capture emissions faces two barriers, according to chemical industry analysts: reducing costs sufficiently to compete with petroleum-based chemical manufacturing and sourcing enough captured emissions or raw materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe market for captured-carbon-based fuels and products is still relatively limited due to technology and cost constraints,\u201d said Mitch Toomey, vice president of sustainability and responsible care at the American Chemistry Council trade association. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr. Herrema said Newlight is also in talks with Nike<\/a> Inc. and Sumitomo Chemical<\/a> Co. Ltd. to use its materials in apparel and automotive machinery. Previously, Newlight had agreements with IKEA and Dell Technologies to provide packaging, but Mr. Herrema said his company decided over the past few years to focus on serving foodware, fashion and automotive companies until it grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n