bioplastics MAGAZINE Issue 06/2010

MERIPLAST® is a novel bioplastics from the French company Syral. It is entirely made from raw materials derived from agriculture and is fully biodegradable.

In August of this year, Solegear Bioplastics, Vancouver, Canada, was chosen by Frost & Sullivan as the recipient of the 2010 North American New Product Innovation Award in the field of Bioplastics.

Rhodia Engineering Plastics reinforced its pledge to champion sustainable development with the launch at K’2010 of more ground-breaking innovations in materials, processing technology and advanced services.

Boulder Canyon™ Natural Foods, a leading North American snack food manufacturer, has introduced a renewable, fully compostable pack for its line of All Natural Kettle Cooked Potato Chips.

Toray Industries, Inc. has been expanding the usage of polylactic acid in various products and applications in fields such as fibers, resins and films with the registered trademark ‘Ecodear’.

In early October Nagoya City, Japan based Toyota Tsusho Corporation announced that they were planning to establish the first global bio-PET integrated supply chain including, procurement of bio-ethanol, production of bio-mono ethylene glycol, tolling business of PET, and marketing of bio-PET.

Melbourne, Australia based packaging technology company Cardia Bioplastics Limited has developed a world first biodegradable plastic bag created from a blend of CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions and starch.

Brazilian masterbatch and additive supplier Cromex from Sao Paulo, specialist in development and formulation of concentrates, presented a new line of white, black, color and functional additives masterbatches based on biopolymers made from 100% renewable source such as PLA obtained from corn starch,

By January 2011, Belgium-based lactic acid producer Galactic will have quadrupled the capacity of its LOOPLA feedstock recovery process (also referred to as chemical recycling) from 500 tonnes to 2,000 tonnes annually.

Alpagro Plastics (Belgium), specialised in carrier bags and flexible packaging, has been focusing their latest developments and innovations within the area of biodegradable packaging. As one of the official BioBag production partners, Alpagro Plastics is using different grades of Mater-Bi granulate.

With an annual compounding capacity of 1,200,000 tonnes the Chinese company KINGFA Science & Technology Co., Ltd. can be considered the world’s largest modified plastics manufacturer. Among other products Kingfa provides partially recycled resins and bioplastics.

Kafrit Industries Ltd, form Negev, Israel presented (among other products) its Ecomp new product line of compostable biopolymer solutions. Ecomp 120 for film applications fulfills the accepted standards EN13432, ASTM D6400-04 and the Japanese green PLA Standard for compostable and biodegradable polymers. Thus it has the OK Compost environmental logo for films between 15- 106 µm.

Wow, that was a show. About 220,000 plastics experts came to K’2010 in Düsseldorf, Germany between October 27 and November 3.

Biodegradability of packaging material is a primary condition needed for a packaging waste treatment in the composting process (organic recycling).

Over the last 19 years, Lexon Design from Boulogne Billancourt, France became the world leader of design objects with over 1,000 original creations.

Using a new Ingeo™ PLA blend formulation, Polenghi LAS, San Rocco Al Porto, Italy, has developed Europe’s first extrusion-blow-molded PLA bottle.

FKuR (Willich, Germany) and Synbra (Etten-Leur,The Netherlands) realise the opportunities of the new PLA generation: GMO free and heat resistant.

Poultry feathers mixed with plastics? Poultry feathers converted into plastics?

Green ABS from IRPC Public Company Limited from Bangkok, Thailand is an innovation of ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) resin as a result of discovery and research to replace synthetic rubber (butadiene) with natural rubber in the ABS manufacturing process.

Ball Innovations, a business unit of Ball Horticultural Company, recently received a 2010 Greener Package Award for its SoilWrap® plantable container made with Mirel™ bioplastics (PHA) by Telles.

During K’2010 Braskem, the largest thermoplastic resin producer in the Americas announced the conclusion of the conceptual phase of the project to build a green propylene plant. In 2011, work will be concluded on the basic engineering studies and, once final approval is obtained, the project‘s installation will begin, with operational startup expected in the second half of 2013.

Belgium-based Solvay announced its partnership with Mitsubishi Gas Chemical (MGC) on the development of high performance castor oil-based polyamides.

Biaxially oriented PLA films have certain properties which are advantageous for specific packaging requirements. Their excellent optics combined with high stiffness make BOPLA an attractive cover for food.

The manufacture of NatureWorks’ Ingeo™ PLA emits fewer greenhouse gasses (GHGs) than the comparable manufacture of every other common petrochemical-based plastic, according to a peer-reviewed article published in the August 2010 edition of Industrial Biotechnology.

The international Roquette group, world leader in starch and starch-based derivatives, has joined the plastics market and launched GAÏALENE®, a new range of plant-based plastics for converters and compounders.

At K’2010, with 222,000 visitors the world’s biggest trade fair for plastics and rubber, held in Düsseldorf every three years, the bioplastics industry strengthened its presence from October 27 to November 03.

ALBIS from Hamburg, Germany not only presented the Arboform, Arbofill and Arboblend products of German supplier Tecnaro but also their own product CELLIDOR®.

Parkinson Technologies from Woonsocket, Rhode Island, USA touted its recent developments producing biaxially oriented film and sheet made with IngeoTM biopolymers from NatureWorks at the K’2010 trade fair in Düsseldorf.

Naturally Iowa, Inc., Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA recently announced that after acquiring Totally Green LLC earlier this year (a company that pioneered research and development of the ORCA Green™ Machine), they will now be known as Totally Green, Inc.

Companies manufacturing and using packaging materials are often accused of being responsible for most landfill waste production.

Huhtamaki Films, manufacturer and converter of films from Forchheim, Germany, recently presented new developments and the next generation of Bio films based on Polylactic acid (PLA) at the Fachpack in Nuremberg and at the Bioplastics Business Breakfast during K’2010 in Düsseldorf.

The French company BIOSPHERE showed their BIOPLAST generation of bioplastic resins. Products made with Bioplast resins are 100% biodegradable and compostable according the EN 13432.

One of the most concrete signs that the bioplastics industry is maturing is that the supply chain – from resin producer through additives suppliers, compounders, and converters – has a vested interest in the success of this emerging industry.

Material supplier Shenzhen Brightchina Industrial Co;Ltd from Shenzen, China started research on PLA about 12 years ago.

“Good design is obvious. Great design is transparent.”

At rock concerts, festivals, and sporting events in the Netherlands, events management firm Loc 7000 has a deal for visitors. If they collect ten Ingeo™ PLA bioplastic ‘Smart’ cups they will get a free beer or soft drink. The Smart cups and free drink offer are important elements of Loc 7000’s sustainability initiative.

Initially it was planned to publish one comprehensive article on the recycling of bioplastics. However, it turned out to be a rather complex topic, so that now we will have this short overview about recycling of plastics and bioplastics and, in addition, a couple more specialized articles on recycling topics, including our cover story.

In most plastics production processes there is waste coming along with the products that converters aim at.

Joint development work between Takata-Petri of Aschaffenburg, Germany, and DuPont has resulted in the launch of a new grade of DuPont™ Hytrel® RS, the industry’s first renewably-sourced thermoplastic elastomer for use in airbag systems.

Communication technology has developed rapidly over the last years and will continue to show strong growth: For 2010, experts are forecasting sales of 1.4 billion mobile phones.

Clarifoil from Spondon, UK, is the world’s leading manufacturer of cellulose diacetate films. In window packaging, Clarifoil UV absorber films are an absolute must for the food industry, particularly for sensitive products such as seafood or delicate icings.

The European Hemp Association (EIHA) welcomes and supports the discussions on European targets for different bio-based products, such as bio-polymers, bio-lubricants, and certain chemical building block chemicals, within the Lead Market Initiative (LMI), the Ad-hoc Advisory Group, the EU-RRM Group and the European Association for Bioindustries (EuropaBIO).

In 1975 Coca-Cola started a packaging revolution by introducing the first PET plastic bottles into the market, which became a great success with our consumers and for our business. PET is light, versatile, recyclable and safe.

About Bioplastics PRO EUROPE (Packaging Recovery Organization Europe), the umbrella organisation for the packaging and packaging waste recovery schemes which mainly use the ‘Green Dot’ trademark, is convinced that waste and resource management is at the forefront of a new economy.

There is considerable interest in bioplastics nowadays. The technical problems associated with turning potato peel into sunglasses, or cane sugar into car bumpers, have already been solved.

Bayer MaterialScience has developed a unique concept for a ‘green shoe’ that uses a whole host of sustainable materials and technologies.

The 5th Bioplastics Award, now jointly presented by bioplastics MAGAZINE and European Plastics News was awarded to the winner of the year 2010 during the 5th European Bioplastics Conference in Düsseldorf, Germany on December 1st, 2010.