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March 2011

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Bioplastic Recycling Infrastructure: PLA sorting
Sorting PLA in recycling facilities is difficult due to low volumes and in many cases, the PLA container looks like PET. For high volume recycling facilities, who have installed the latest equipment, an optical sort machine can scan and sort PLA from PET or HDPE at high speeds (Biocor).

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Increase of the bioplastic production in Germany
BASF has started operations at its expanded plant for the production of the biodegradable plastic Ecoflex®. Expansion of the existing plant in Ludwigshafen (Germany) will increase production capacity for Ecoflex from 14,000 to 74,000 metric tons per year. At the same time, BASF will ramp up compounding capacity for Ecovio®, a derivative of Ecoflex.
“We are already successful in the market with our biodegradable polyester Ecoflex and the related innovation, Ecovio. The larger production capacities will enhance our position significantly,” said Dr. Wolfgang Hapke, president of BASF’s Performance Polymers division. “The capacity expansion will also enable us to respond even more effectively to our customers’ wishes.”
Ecoflex is a plastic that has the properties of conventional polyethylene but is fully biodegradable under industrial composting conditions in accordance with DIN EN 13432.

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Notes from Bioplastic Reshaping Industry conference – Las Vegas February 2011
Nike – the apparel & shoe maker gave an interesting view on their approach to sustainability. The key interest is to use bioplastics to reduce the carbon footprint, on the basis of proven LCA advantages. Very interesting is also to see how Nike prioritizes it’s effort.
1. Identify where the main impact is ? materials / manufacturing (not use, logistics or end of life…)
2. In materials, what are the primary material streams in apparel it’s polyester & cotton, in footwear it’s rubber & EVA
3. start working on reducing tox, carbon footprint, waste and water on each.
In parallel to that Nike is working on closing the loop and setting up recycling schemes, f.ex. using recycled PET from bottles for sportswear.
The Bio-PET race is on !
Coca-Cola presented it’s PlantBottle The key reason why Coca-Cola care about packaging is that it’s the most important driver for increasing sales of beverages. Coca Cola are working on making PET bio based by making the two main PET components (ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid) bio-based. The first step was to use bio-based ethylene glycol .

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A future generation of biodegradable Polyester compounds
BASF Corporation announced that it has received a license from Metabolix under U.S. Patent No. 5,883,199, titled “Polylactic Acid-Based Blends,” to produce and market PLA (PolyLactic Acid) and PBAT (PolyButylene Adipate co-Terephthalate) compounds under the BASF trade name Ecovio®. Ecovio biodegradable polymer is a blend of Ecoflex® biodegradable aliphatic-aromatic copolyester (PBAT) and polylactic acid on the basis of corn. The University of Massachusetts is the owner of the ‘199 patent, and Metabolix, Inc. is its exclusive licensee in the relevant field. Metabolix, Inc. is a leader in the use of bioscience to provide biobased, sustainable, solutions for the world’s needs for plastics, fuels and chemicals.
Ecovio can be used to extrude biodegradable films without any further admixtures or preparation and is used to create tailor-made blends to meet customer needs.

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Introductions of bioplastics reached a crescendo during 2010 – A point of view!
....Introductions of bioplastic materials and products reached a crescendo during 2010, as more mainstream companies introduced bioplastics from a dizzying array of commodities. Beverage maker Odwalla, a Coca-Cola subsidiary, said it was switching all of its single-serve drinks to bottles made almost entirely of plastic derived from molasses and sugarcane juice. (In 2009, Coke announced it would begin phasing in a similar bioplastic bottle for its flagship cola.)
Procter & Gamble is bringing sugarcane to shampoo and makeup with new packaging that will be on shelves next year. The company will start using sugarcane-based plastic packaging for certain products from its Pantene Pro-V, Covergirl and Max Factor brands, made with ethanol derived from Brazilian sugarcane.
Sugarcane is just the start. Electronics company NEC said it developed a bioplastic made with an extract from non-edible cashew nut shells and plant cellulose that is twice as strong as another bioplastic typically made from corn starch.

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Heinz Adopts The PlantBottle!
Starting this summer, Heinz ketchup will be appearing in plant-based bottles developed by Coke. The Coca-Cola Company and H.J. Heinz yesterday announced a partnership under which Heinz will start using Coke’s PlantBottle packaging for all 20-ounce ketchup containers. The PET bottles are made partially from Brazilian sugarcane ethanol and have a lower reliance on non-renewable resources than traditional PET bottles, Coke said. Up to 30 percent of PlantBottles comes from plants, and the bottles are fully recyclable.
There’s no difference between the PlantBottle and Coke’s old plastic bottles in shelf life, weight or appearance, according to Coca-Cola vice president of environment and water resources Jeff Seabright.
Heinz said its adoption of PlantBottle technology would be the biggest change to its ketchup bottles since the company introduced plastic containers in 1983. It said the packaging switch is an important step in its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, solid waste, water consumption and energy usage by at least 20 percent by 2015.

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How is biobased PET manufactured?

PlantBottle PET plastic
beverage bottles are made with up to 30 percent of their PET material derived from plants. The Coca-Cola Company has worked with partners to develop a process for making PET plastic bottles that contain a blend of traditional material and up to 30 percent plant-based material. The plant-based material is made from sugar cane and molasses, a by-product of sugar cane processing.
In some markets, its used both recycled content as well as plant-based material in the PlantBottle packaging. For bottles that use recycled material, the recycled content plus plant-based material should enhance the environmental benefit associated with PlantBottle packaging by further reducing the use of virgin petroleum-based material during manufacturing.
A PlantBottle PET bottle feels like traditional PET plastic, it’s the same weight as traditional PET plastic, it works just like traditional PET plastic, and it’s recyclable just like traditional PET plastic — because it is PET plastic.


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PHAs market in packaging is still extremely small – A point of view!
PHAs are linear polyesters naturally produced by bacterial fermentation of sugar or lipids. Telles, the US-based bioplastics joint venture between renewable chemical company Metabolix and agribusiness firm Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) is ramping up the world’s largest commercial-scale PHA plant in Clinton, Iowa, US, designed to produce 110m lb/year (50,000 tonnes/year) of the corn-based plastic under the brand Mirel.
Telles began making commercial shipments ofMirel PHA to customers when it started the facility in March 2010, according to Metabolix CEO Rick Eno. The company anticipated the plant running at full capacity by mid-2013.
“We expect a number of new customer announcements for Mirel as we continue to establish the foundation for this substantial business,” says Eno. “Mirel is now commercially available in a variety of grades including thermoforming, injection molding, cast/blown film and sheet. It can replace many petroleum-based plastic materials from olefins and styrenics to ABS [acrylonitrile-butadiene -styrene] and polycarbonate [PC].”


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Sugar as alternative to petroleum
A major product is bioplastic such as bio-polyethylene made from sugarcane-based ethylene. Brazilian chemical company Braskem is a prominent developer in this area. Braskem also recently announced its development partnership with enzyme company Novozymes for bio-propylene using sugar-cane as feedstock.
Also in Brazil, sugarcane and ethanol producer Pedra Agroindustrial plans to start commercial bioplastics production by late 2012 using sugarcane-based poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB). Meanwhile, European chemical company Solvay is also developing bio-polyvinyl chloride (PVC) using sugarcane-based ethylene.

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