bioplastics MAGAZINE Issue 02/2019

In March 2019, Patrick Zimmermann, Director Marketing & Sales of FKuR Kunststoff GmbH, said:

T he LFL Bavarian State Research Centre for Agriculture (Freising, Germany), HOLMER Maschinenbau (Schierling, Germany) and the tyre manufacturer Continental Reifen Deutschland GmbH are jointly developing a root harvester for the Russian dandelion. The German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) supports the work under the Renewable Resources Promotion Programme.

taken by Tetra Pak to enhance renewable polymer sourcing

Companies seeking to gain OK Compost Industrial, OK Compost Home, OK Biodegradable Soil and Seedling certification and labels can now turn to the laboratories of research institute AIMPLAS (Paterna, Spain) for the required tests.

U.S. sustainable technology company Anellotech (Pearl River, New York and its joint development partners IFPEN and Axens have processed renewably-sourced aromatics made at Anellotech’s TCat- 8® pilot plant to successfully recover high-purity biobased paraxylene – a key component for making 100% biobased PET a reality.

Arla (Söderkulla, Finland) wants to provide consumers with new opportunities to choose more responsible products. This year, Arla has been the first company in Finland to use renewable wood-based bioplastics in gable top paperboard cartons for milk, yoghurt and cooking products.The tall oil-based raw material is a Finnish innovation by UPM.

This year’s BIOFACH trade fair in Nuremberg, Germany saw the debut of the new, biobased and biodegradable reusable cutlery produced by Bremen, Germany-headquartered company Bionatic. The products are made from a biobased compound that comprises up to 80% renewable raw materials.

With the scientific expertise of the ENSIACET laboratory (Toulouse, France), Studio Thomas Vailly (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) investigated for Atelier Luma (Arles, France), the potential of sunflower leftovers to create novel applications. Focusing on the transformation of biobased matter, this project explores the potential of sunflower residues to create new applications and prototypes embedded in sustainable, innovative production systems. Such potential applications include for instance, panels for architectural designs (Fig. 1)

When Cologne (Germany) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) celebrate their carnival, New Orleans (Louisiana, USA) has its Mardi Gras. And beads are an important part of it. However, after the parades ten thousands of kilograms (46 tonnes in 2017 according to Reuters) of Mardi Gras beads and doubloons enter the environment each year.

Biome Bioplastics (Southampton, UK) and Futamura (Wigton, Cumbria, UK) have partnered on the development of a range of bio-based and compostable multilayer films. The materials offer competitive performance, while tackling the negative environmental impact of traditional oil-based, non-recyclable multilayer packaging.

“Taking into consideration our customer feedback and our desire to be great neighbors, we have been taking a careful look at our packaging and the opportunities that exist to make improvements, with respect to sustainability.

Braskem and Haldor Topsoe announced today that they have reached mechanical completion of the MOSAIK™ process step of their demonstration plant that will produce bio-based monoethylene glycol - MEG - from sugars.

It’s spring again, the bioplastics calendar of events is filling fast, and we have a busy time ahead. First up: our inaugural bio!TOY conference, held in the TOY-CITY of Nuremberg, Germany and focused on the use of biobased plastics in toys and leisure applications has just concluded. All were agreed that it was a very good meeting. Read our comprehensive report in the next issue.

DSM and Roquette are taking the next step in biobased succinic acid, as the companies recently announced.

In the concrete industry, very considerable amounts of plastic pellets are used in the transport of the different products (e.g., when stacking concrete floor slabs or paving stones). The granules (usually LDPE) are used to protect packaged ceramic or concrete products from scratches and efflorescence. According to the instructions on the packaging, the LDPE granules must be disposed of properly after unpacking to ensure the granules are not blown away by the wind or swept into tile joints. Unfortunately, proper care is not always taken to prevent this happening, which means a significant amount of LDPE ends up in the environment, remaining there for hundreds of years, gradually fragmenting into microplastics. The market for granulate used for this purpose is about 500 tonnes per year in Germany alone.

Resulting from an application demonstration project with various collaboration partners, Avantium’s business unit Synvina (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) has produced the first plant-based pouches using its biaxially oriented polyethylene furanoate (BOPEF) film. Avantium has jointly developed BOPEF film together with Toyobo (Headquartered in Osaka, Japan). The pouches consist of a two-layer laminate of a BOPEF layer and a plant-based polyethylene (PE) sealing layer.

As part of the current discussions regarding the ecological sense and consequences of the use of plastics, biobased as well as biodegradable plastics are taking on an as yet unidentified special status. As a responsible manufacturer and marketer, FKuR confirms both product groups have a great potential to meet the demands of the current EU directives in addressing this issue. The company emphasizes the excellent suitability of biobased thermoplastics for conventional material recycling, while it sees biodegradable plastics as an efficient and proven solution for those applications where this property generates added value for the end product.

The new range of certified compostable salad bowls from Sirap is called MQ Bio. This product is part of the new Earth’s® range, with which the company proposes to respond to the ever-increasing demand for biobased and compostable packaging, in line with the Group’s newly formulated strategic approach. This approach has led Sirap to actively invest in sustainable solutions across the line: in cutting-edge production products and processes, in the optimization of the supply chain, and in its choice of reliable and sustainable partners. This was also how the partnership with Novamont, an Italian company for whom sustainable development is a priority, started. Novamont is now a crucial Sirap partner for the development of bio packaging.

Kompuestos develops a new Biokomp grade for hot contents

In line with increasing awareness and urgency to work towards a circular economy, companies are continuously looking for suitable alternatives to conventional plastic solutions.

E xotic fruits, flowers, fish – there is a broad selection of these in our supermarkets. For this variety, fresh food has to be transported safely over long distances. Transport boxes made of hollow-chamber multiwall sheets are particularly suitable for this. They resemble corrugated cardboard boxes but are waterproof. Until now, multiwall sheets could not be made from bioplastics. Together with international partners, the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT has now developed a biobased and biodegradable material that can withstand the complex requirements in sheet production and replace fossil plastics in the future.

A new initiative at NatureWorks (Minnetonka, Minnessota, USA) will ensure that by 2020 100 % of the agricultural feedstock for Ingeo™ PLA biopolymers and Vercet™ performance chemicals will be certified by the International Sustainability & Carbon Certification System (ISCC) to the ISCC PLUS standard of best practices in agricultural production. NatureWorks was the first biopolymers manufacturer to become certified to the new ISCC PLUS standard in 2012 and currently has more than 40 % of its agricultural feedstock certified. At full capacity, more than 90 farms will be involved in the program by 2020.

The European Union has published a new study entitled “Environmental impact assessments of innovative biobased products” which aims to provide science-based facts and evidence on the environmental impacts of innovative biobased products and mostly plastic products compared to petrochemical counterparts.

Will PLA solve the plastic pollution problem in island countries like Singapore?

It may sound like California Dreamin’ but the new bottle, launched under the brand name Cove, is the first water bottle of water made of PHA.

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green alternative to PVC/ABS/PP edgebanding

Wood-based fibre specialist Lenzing Group (Lenzing, Austria) has joined forces with Billa, an Austrian supermarkert chain with more than 1,088 stores in Austria, to offer consumers reusable, biobased nets as alternative to conventional plastic packaging. The newly launched nets for fruit and vegetables, made from Lenzing™ Modal fibers, have proven to be a hit, with over 150,000 already having been sold by Billa, Merkur And Adeg since the introduction of the nets in November 2018. Due to high demand, the environmentally friendly packaging has been available in all Billa stores throughout Austria since the beginning of February 2019.

Samsung Electronics announced earlier this year that the packaging used currently for their products and accessories – ranging from mobile phones and tablets to home appliances – will be substituted with environmentally sustainable materials like recycled/biobased plastics.

W orldwide, more and more packaging is being used. Seeking to reduce this, various European member states are looking into options for Plastic Pacts: agreements between governments and the packaging industry to rethink the way we make, use, and reuse plastics and packaging. What does this mean for the future of biobased packaging?

Are biobased and biodegradable plastics also suitable for thermoforming? The Turkish plastics processor Göncay Plastik, which manufactures millions of plastic lids for drinking cups for fast-food chains, answers the question with a definite “yes”. The company has plenty of good experience with Bio-Flex®, a biobased compound from the portfolio of FKuR that meets the high specifications on processability and product properties.

BP, Virent Inc. and Johnson Matthey (JM) have signed an agreement that will further advance the commercialisation of Virent’s Bioforming® process for production of bio-paraxylene (PX), a key raw material for the production of 100 % biobased PET.

With the introduction of a new series of paddy straw trays for fruit and vegetables on the European market, Bio4Pack (Nordhorn, Gewrmany) once again introduces a new revolutionary product that can rightly be called sustainable. The basis for the dishes is waste from rice plantations in the north of Malaysia. Until recently, this waste was “cleaned up” by burning it. This not only resulted in air pollution, but valuable raw material was also lost. With the development of a, now patented, processing technique by the Malaysian “Free the Seed” initiative, this waste is now becoming raw material for high-quality fruit and vegetable trays that are compostable in accordance with the EN 13432 standard. The unique sustainable properties of the product were confirmed by obtaining the silver Cradle to Cradle certificate, which can be called a unique achievement.