26. May 2016
Bio-on presents PHA solution for microbeads at "Future of Formulations in Cosmetics"
Italy-based PHA specialist Bio-on has developed a potential replacement for the use of petroleum-based microbeads in cosmetics and personal care products, said the company in a presentation at the "Future of Formulations in Cosmetics" conference in Budapest on 18 and 19 May.
The company has developed and patented a new formulation called Minerv PHA Bio Cosmetics (type C1), a PHA solution for microbeads that are suitable for the cosmetics industry.
Microbeads, the plastic, usually PE, micro particles currently used as thickeners, stabilizers and exfoliants in such widely used products as lipstick, lip gloss, mascara, eye-liner, nail polish, creams, shampoo, foam bath and even toothpaste, are largely unknown pollutants of the environment. Designed to literally go down the drain, they become a permanent part of the natural cycle: swallowed by plankton in the rivers and seas, these microscopic plastic particles enter the food chain, eventually ending up on consumers’ plates. The level of pollution is serious enough that the US government enacted a bill called the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015, banning the use of oil-based polymers in personal care products.
Bio-on’s Minerv PHA Bio Cosmetics formulation will naturally biodegrade in aquatic environments, claims the company. Moreover, the biopolymer developed at the Bio-on laboratories actually decomposes into a nutrient for some micro-organisms and plants present in nature. The benefit for the environment is therefore two-fold.
"We are very pleased with the amount of interest we have received from multinationals in the sector," explains Bio-on S.p.A. Chairman Marco Astorri, "Bio-on has given an important signal because with Bio Cosmetics it offers cosmetics manufacturers the immediate possibility of responding to demands from consumers for natural, sustainable and non-polluting products."
Bio-on bioplastics are made from renewable plant sources, some of which are waste, with
no competition with food supply chains, and are 100% naturally biodegradable (certified in Europe by Vincotte and in the US by United States Department of Agriculture). Bio-on owns the entire technological process for production and use of the various grades of PHAs and applies the Intellectual property business model strategy.