Daily News

The licensed technology completes Sulzer’s (Winterthur, Switzerland) portfolio of licensed technologies for the manufacture of polylactic acid (PLA), an eco-friendly bioplastic.

Phabuilder Biotechnology (Beijing, China) secured an order of millions of USD, one of the largest in the PHA industry so far, aiming to showcase the diverse applications of PHA and transform everyday products.

Bioplastics currently represent roughly 0.5 % of the over 400 million tonnes of plastic produced annually (World plastics production 2022, Plastics Europe, 2023).

The European Bioplastics Conference is Europe’s leading business and discussion forum within the global bioplastics sector.

Neste (Espoo, Finland) has joined forces with Eppendorf (Hamburg, Germany), a leading manufacturer and supplier of laboratory equipment, to advance the development of lab products made with renewable raw materials.

Circa Group AS (Oslo, Norway), Vataset Teollisuus Oy (Helsinki, Finland), and Kemijarvi Biorefinery (Kemijarvi, Finland) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to evaluate the establishment of a Circa Furacell™ production facility on the Kemijarvi Biopark in Northern Finland.

Trinseo (Wayne, PA, USA), a specialty material solutions provider, is helping advance the potential of sustainable plastics with the inauguration of its next generation, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) depolymerization plant in Rho, Italy.

Plastic, made in the traditional petroleum-based method, has served its purpose. The near-perfect packaging material has been instrumental in transforming the world's food supply and can be found in nearly every sector of daily life.

Recently, thyssenkrupp Uhde (Dortmund, Germany) has secured a Basic Engineering Package (BEP) and Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) package for the establishment of a bioplastic plant on the Arabian Peninsula.

Sulzer (Winterthur, Switzerland) is launching a new end-to-end licensed technology – CAPSUL™ – for the continuous manufacturing of polycaprolactone (PCL), a biodegradable polyester often used in the packaging, textile, agricultural, and horticultural industries.

NatureWorks (PLYMOUTH, MN, USA), a leading manufacturer of polylactic acid (PLA) biopolymers made from renewable resources, recently announced the appointment of Erik Ripple as the company’s new President and Chief Executive Officer.

Wageningen University & Research has assessed the environmental impacts and circularity of different materials for single serve coffee capsules, when subjected to various end-of-life scenarios

New thinking and terminology is needed to meet climate goals and secure sustainable carbon supply.

AIMPLAS (Valencia, Spain), the Plastics Technology Centre, has been authorized by DIN CERTCO (TÜV Rheinland – Cologne, Germany), an independent European certification company in the bioplastics market, to perform biodegradability and compostability tests in its testing laboratories, which will allow bioplastics businesses to obtain the ecolabels DIN Industrial Compostable, DIN Home Compostable, and DIN Biodegradable Soil.

Neste (Espoo, Finland), Mitsui Chemicals (Tokyo, Japan), and Prime Polymer (Tokyo, Japan), a subsidiary of Mitsui Chemicals, are working together to provide more sustainable food packaging solutions for CO-OP, a brand of the Japanese Consumers Co-operative Union (JCCU – Tokyo, Japan).

INEOS Styrolution (Frankfurt/M, Germany), the global leader in styrenics, recently announced that EdilPlast SRL (Atessa, Italy), part of First Corporation group, has chosen the company’s sustainable styrenics solutions for their latest generation of building products.

PureCycle (Orlando, FL, USA), recently, sent out a commercial shipment of Ultra-Pure Recycled (UPR) resin to Milliken & Company (Spartanburg, SC, USA), a diversified manufacturer with expertise in polymer additive and colourant technology.

A global coalition of packaging and material companies is calling on UN Treaty makers to recognise natural polymer materials as a key tool in the fight against plastic pollution.

Global brand air up® has launched a new reusable bottle line for the European market made with Eastman (Kingsport, TN, USA) Tritan™ Renew that further expands the air up mission to eliminate single-use plastic waste.

Mariagiovanna Vetere and Lars Börger take the reins as Acting Co-Chairs.

ZymoChem (San Leandro, CA, USA), creators of Carbon Conserving (C2) technology that converts renewable feedstocks into high-value materials, announces that it is the recipient of a USD 4.0 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO).

Committed to supporting the circular economy and fighting climate change, Brazilian petrochemical companies Braskem (São Paulo) and Indorama Ventures IOD – Oxiteno (São Paulo) announced a partnership to supply bio-attributed ethylene from renewable sources.

The beginning of November saw the launch of Roberts Mart’s (Leeds, UK) first overseas office and their new compostable packaging film, Biyo, set to improve disposal of home compostable flexible packaging materials.

Solugen (Houston TX, USA), a rapidly scaling climate technology company that is reimagining the chemistry of everyday life, and ADM (Chicago, IL, USA), a global leader in sustainable solutions, recently announced a strategic partnership to scale a range of innovative, plant-based specialty chemicals and biobased building block molecules in a new manufacturing facility in Marshall, Minnesota (USA).

The data is based on nova-Institute’s annually published biobased polymers capacity and production data and adapted to the scope of the historical Plastics Europe data on plastics production as well as the scope of European Bioplastics

GOZEN (San Francisco, CA,USA), the biomaterials startup that is set to disrupt the fashion, automotive, and home furnishings industries, has just announced USD 3.3 million in a seed funding round.

Versalis (San Donato Milanese, Italy) announces that it now holds the entire share capital of Novamont, of which it already owned 36 %.

Tonies, the global provider of “smart” audio systems for children, selected INEOS Styrolution’s sustainable ECO polymer to reduce the environmental footprint of their new audio product “Clever Tonies”.

Kraiburg TPE (Waldkraiburg, Germany) is presenting thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs) that have a variable proportion of renewable raw materials.

In order to respond to individual customer requirements and to meet social and political responsibility, scientists from Fraunhofer LBF, in collaboration with Ansmann AG, have carried out the "BioBattery" research project to develop natural fibre-reinforced plastics for use in Li-ion battery housings.