bioplastics MAGAZINE Issue 01/2018

PG tips, owned by Unilever (Leatherhead, Surrey, UK) recently announced to move to fully biodegradable, plant based material in the UK’s favourite tea bag, PG tips, over the course of 2018.

Biobased materials are currently attracting much positive attention across an increasing number of industries. As a leading company in the biodegradable plastics industry, JinHui ZhaoLong, based in Shanxi province, China and a manufacturer of 20,000 tonnes of PBAT per year, has actively worked to promote the development of biodegradable plastic materials. The company’s biodegradable resins, marketed under the brand names Ecoworld® and Ecowill® have been well received in the market, with positive reports from satisfied users. On that basis, JinHui ZhaoLong completed the laboratory development of 20 % and 40 % good quality biobased and fully biodegradable resins in their Ecoworld series products and successfully started pilot production of 500 tonnes/year. Now, they are actively preparing to scale up production. Recently, the company achieved a further breakthrough in the research on increasing the biobased content in its biodegradable resin. The company has successfully synthesized a 100 % biobased and biodegradable PBSF resin with higher molecular weight using 1,4 butanediol (BDO), succinic acid (SA) and 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA). The research and development results are presented in the following:

PlayMais® is a creative craft activity for children based on corn starch (maize) that – bucking the international trend in toy manufacturing - proudly bears the label Made in Germany. A claim few toys sold today on the market can make.

Bcomp, Fribourg, Switzerland, specialised in natural fibre materials, has signed a 2-year contract with the European Spatial Agency (ESA) to participate in the ESA Clean Space initiative.

Bio-on (Bologna, Italy) recently launched another revolutionary new use for its 100 % natural and biodegradable PHAs bioplastic. Bio-on researchers have developed a solution for the controlled release of Urea fertilisers, an enormous market with global annual production of 180 million tonnes and 4 % annual growth. The advantage is more effective dosage and lower fertiliser consumption. This means less pollution and a positive impact on people and the planet.

What do consumers think of biobased food packaging? And can manufacturers and retailers strengthen the brand position of their food products by choosing biobased food packaging? Within the COMBO public private partnership, Wageningen University & Research is helping the food sector make well-founded, sustainable packaging choices.

Biobased plastics are conquering the toy market. Already today, a large number of applications inspire their very young audience with fresh colours, pleasantly soft surfaces without sharp corners and edges and long-lasting robustness against the often rough treatment. The bioplastic specialist FKuR (Willich, Germany) has a whole range of harmless compounds in its portfolio, which are perfectly matched to these demanding requirements and thus open the way to sustainability in children’s rooms and sandboxes.

Kompuestos is a Spanish company founded in 1986 in Palau Solità i Plegamans near Barcelona. Over the last three decades, Kompuestos has positioned itself as one of the main international suppliers of a large variety of masterbatches (high performance mineral fillers, additives, white, black, colours and monopigments), mainly based on polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene, all of which are intended to meet the needs of very diverse markets in the plastic industry, such as for packaging and containers, agriculture, construction, sports and toys, furniture and garden articles, automotive, hygiene and home care, among them.

Sure, if the Koala is a special BIOplastic one!

today, the calendar marks the first day of spring, but there’s still snow and frost outside, at least here in Germany. However, as the days lengthen, the pace of life is once again picking up, with busy times coming. Just days after you receive this issue of bioplastics MAGAZINE, we will be travelling to Chinaplas, which this year is being held at the new National Exhibition and Convention Center, in Hongqiao, Shanghai (NECC). The beginning of May will see us travelling to Orlando, Florida, for NPE 2018: The Plastics Show, the triennial international plastics manufacturing exposition organized by the US Plastics Industry Association.

Thinkstep (headquartered in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany) with support of the Institute for Bioplastics and Biocomposites (IfBB, Hannover, Germany) has developed an easy-to-use LCA tool to quantify the environmental performance of bioplastic products.

Sulapac’s unique fully biodegradable eco-designed packaging has been selected by Finnish cosmetics company Naviter for its new Atopik range of natural cosmetic products. Both companies are based in Helsinki, Finland.

One of the most exciting trends in the United States right now is the Maker Movement. Simply put, the idea is to use traditional processes combined with new technology to create products locally, with a handcrafted look and feel. With the advent of CAD design, 3D printers and using the internet to find resources, manufacturing is enjoying a renaissance at the local level.

The provisional agreements reached by the European Council and Parliament on the EU waste legislative package published by the Commission in 2015, recognise the benefits of bioplastics. The new legislation acknowledges that bio-based feedstock for plastic packaging as well as compostable plastics for separate bio-waste collection contribute to more efficient waste management and help to reduce the impacts of plastic packaging on the environment. The legislative package includes the revision of the Waste Framework Directive and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive.

Roughly sixty years after patenting their legendary tube and burl system, LEGO® starts with their first biobased elements this year. Lego botanical elements such as leaves, bushes and trees will be made from plant-based plastic sourced from sugarcane in the future and will appear in Lego boxes already in 2018.

Waldorf teachers believe that toys should be simple and open-ended. By giving children objects that are not highly formed and detailed, they can easily become more than one thing and give children’s imaginations free reign. Inspired by Waldorf education system, Wooly Organic toys have minimal facial features in order to encourage the imagination of the young child and to cultivate her inner picturing abilities. Children smile and laugh, but they also look sad or cry when they are hungry or need changing. If a toy has just two eyes the child is able to imagine the toy expressing her own emotions, living in her replete imaginative life.

Teijin Limited (Tokyo, Japan) recently announced that it has developed a formable gasoline-resistant film made of PLANEXT® bioplastic to replace chrome plating, which Honda Lock Mfg. Co., Ltd. has now adopted for nonconductive door handles integrated with smart-entry systems. Teijin developed the innovative film using a special metal-evaporation technology from a processing-manufacturer partner. Teijin is currently developing other automotive applications in addition to mass producing the film for door handles.

Lactips, based in Saint-Jean-Bonnefonds, France, is a young company focussed on the design, development and manufacture of an eco-friendly plastic raw material made of milk protein. The new, disruptive material, says the company, provides an answer to the problem of plastics pollution while meeting human needs. The plastic offers good gas barrier properties, is biosourced and biodegradable, making it suitable for a host of different applications.

Biobased plastics with natural insecticide functionality

Part I: recycling of production waste of biodegradable plastics

Natural creative clay is made of particular top-quality materials and does not contain any preserving agents. Becks Plastilin (Gomaringen, Germany) have optimised both the formula and quality of this kind of clay and use 100 % pure beeswax in addition to natural oils and plant-based (starch) filler material for its production. The packaging is made of environmentally friendly, recyclable material, making natural creative clay an entirely natural product.

VELOX GmbH (Hamburg, Germany), one of Europe’s leading solution providers of raw material specialities for the plastics, composites, additives and paint & coatings industries, has a long term partnership with SK Chemicals (South Korea).

After one year of development, the Dutch company LUCO TOYS (De Meern, Utrecht, The Netherlands) presents a new generation of its toy bricks: interlocking building blocks made from the wood plastic composite JELUPLAST. The wood composite creates eco-friendly toy bricks that are dimensionally stable and resistant to breakage. Luco Toys thus expands its product range of interlocking wooden bricks and will in future also offer interlocking building bricks made from bioplastic.

Compostable food packaging with a matching look and feel

Most frequently clicked news

We move forward by leaps and bounds. To meet the needs of a society in constant flux, human beings are consuming our planet’s resources in increasingly larger quantities – a process that is exacerbated by the exponential growth of the number of inhabitants and the recent development of traditionally poor areas.

Just about half an hour from the bioplastics MAGAZINE offices interested students can achieve a Master’s degree (MSc) in “Biobased Materials”. In late 2017 bioplastics MAGAZINE visited the premises of Maastricht University on the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Geleen, the Netherlands. We spoke to Dr. Menno Knetsch, teacher and Programme Director of the Master Biobased Materials and Dr. Yvonne van der Meer, Associate Professor & Head of the Department of Biobased Materials.

Compostable packaging creates a green revolution in meat packaging

About 10 years ago the first products of the PHA-platform have been introduced to the plastics market. The initial products were P3HB, P3HB4HB copolymers and PHBV copolymers. These initial PHA-products were biodegradable under many conditions (soil, water, aerobic, anaerobic, etc.) when subjected to bacteria or fungi, were 100 % based on renewable feedstock and were claimed to be a potential replacement for big volume fossil-based polymers like PE, PP, PS and PET in a variety of mostly one-time-use applications. A few years later also PHA-polymers with a longer side chains (PHBH, PHBO and PHBD) were introduced to the market. After a couple of years the compounders also managed to develop compounds containing PHA-products to replace ABS and PC/ABS compounds for durable applications like design-chairs and light switch covers (see photos).

Total Corbion PLA, (Gorinchem, The Netherlands) recently announced that it has successfully started up its 1 kTpa PLA pilot plant in Rayong, Thailand. The pilot plant started up in December 2017 and over the past two months has produced a broad range of Luminy® PLA resins.

BiOBUDDi™ presents first compatible toy bricks and unique new products

Kando Concepts Ltd and Eastman Chemical Company collaborate in development of a new range of toys