bioplastics MAGAZINE Issue 03/2015

In the early 1990s a piece of legislation was published with a fairly significant impact on households: citizens had to start sorting their waste. This legislation, the European Directive 94/62/EC, covering the selective collection and recycling of waste, was the first European text to feature the concept of organic recycling, better known as composting.

Nagase ChemteX is a Japanese chemical manufacturer and is supplying high-performance, high added-value chemical products to meet their customers’ needs in a number of sectors, from electronics and life sciences to automobiles and the sustainability business.

Basaltex® is a Belgian based company who introduced the basalt fiber to the European Market. It has many years of experience in basalt fibers and its applications.

Bio-on S.p.A. (San Giorgio di Piano, Italy) and Pizzoli S.p.A. (Bologna, Italy) Italian potato processor will collaborate to build Italy‘s first PHAs bioplastic production plant using waste product from the potato agro-industrial process.

FAO results published in the “World agriculture: towards 2015/2030” study, show the global increase of crops irrigated area. The study suggests that the irrigated area in the 1997 – 1999 period was 202 million hectares. This figure will rise up to 242 million hectares by 2030.

Bioplastics – sustainability top, processing capabilities flop. Numerous companies, upon deciding to substitute bioplastics for petrobased plastics, have had to face up to this or similar conclusions.

bio!CAR, the new international conference on biobased materials in automotive engineering will debut at the Exhibition Centre Stuttgart on 24 and 25 September as part of COMPOSITES EUROPE 2015.

1 Introduction Natural fibres are an environmentally friendly alternative to glass and mineral fibres. In the last twenty years more and more natural fibres have started being used in biocomposites, mainly for the automotive sector and also as insulation material.

CHINAPLAS 2015, held from 20-23 May 2015 in Guangzhou, has again set new records with unprecedented scale, with a gross exhibition area exceeding 240,000 m² and over 3,200 exhibitors from 40 countries and regions. After our show preview in the last issue, our reporters did not report about significant breakthrough developemnts in the field of bioplastics at this year’s Chinaplas. Thus we just present a few news from the Bioplastics Zone, that comprised again a total of 28 companies plus another 23 companies showcasing bioplastics products or services in other halls.

For its PlantBottle, Coca-Cola currently uses PET that is 30 % (by weight) renewably sourced in many of its core brands.

It was a try and it was a success.The first bio!PAC conference on biobased packaging in Amsterdam on May 12 and 13 was very well received by the almost 100 attendees, speakers, exhibitors and sponsors.

New biobased packaging conference fills a need, say key stakeholders at bio!PAC

Even if bioplastics MAGAZINE has tried to give answers to all kind of questions from the field of biobased and biodegradable plastics for almost ten years now, there are always the same questions asked by people who just learned about these new kinds of materials.

Thermosets Thermosets are polymeric materials generated by irreversible crosslinking of multifunctional monomers or oligomers thus forming a three dimensional network out of the initial resin system. Obviously, thermoset properties depend both on the monomer structure and on the architecture of the network.

Attention for bioplastics is increasing in the Netherlands. There are both national and international companies that focus on the production and processing of bioplastics. However, there is still a need for further awareness of the benefits of using bioplastics both in the public and business domain. In an attempt to increase awareness and understanding of bioplastics in the Netherlands, Holland Bioplastics was recently formed.

With her presentation at bio!PAC in Amsterdam on the 12th of May, Laura de Nooijer impressed many of the attendees.

While the demand for biodegradable packaging continues to rise, injection molders are still facing challenges to process these type of polymers, especially when it comes to very thin wall packaging.

Royal DSM (Heerlen, The Netherlands) recently announced that its high performance biobased EcoPaXX® polyamide 4.10 has been chosen for the Edging Chassis of an innovative new mountaineering shoe from sports specialist Salomon.

NatureWorks (Minnetonka, Minnesota, USA) announced in late April the availability of new ABS replacement formulations that clearly demonstrate PLA based Ingeo™ resins have evolved into a practical and safe alternative for a broad range of styrenics in terms of performance, price, and eco profile.

MHG’s emergence onto the world stage as the premier manufacturer of PHA biopolymers (polyhydroxyalkanoates) came full circle this spring when Belgium’s Vinçotte International awarded its first ever OK Marine Biodegradable certification to the company.

Well-known concepts Back in 2010, two PhD students from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) were discussing a technical problem during a run in the forest. They wanted to develop a natural fibre composite tube which was lighter and stiffer than the carbon composite version.

Specialty chemicals company LANXESS (Cologne, Germany) provides its innovative bio-based Keltan Eco EPDM rubber to Freudenberg Sealing Technologies. This well-known global manufacturer of seals and vibration control technology products recently started to produce rubber seals made of Keltan Eco EPDM at its North American affiliate.

University of California San Diego’s efforts to produce innovative and sustainable solutions to the world’s environmental problems have resulted in a partnership with the region’s surfing industry to create the world’s first algae-based, sustainable surfboard.