Page 42 - Packaging News Jan-Feb 2020

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Green expectations
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PLASTICS & BIOPLASTICS
The climate of negativity surrounding plastic packaging could give the biobased sector the impetus it needs to become a more viable sustainable solution. Des King reports for PKN from the annual European Bioplastics conference in Berlin.
biobased materials, accounting for 1.14m tonnes per annum (53 per cent of total capacity). Even so, it was nearer to 60 per cent a year ago, its decline reflecting the twin forces of regulation and knee-jerk marketing in the wake of critical media atten- tion focused upon the very evident pollution caused – the slack largely taken up by the automotive and construction sectors.
FOCUS ON BIODEGRADABILITY
The probability of ever-increasing constraints upon single-use plastic packaging, however, could create opportunities for compostables, which are on track to account for 55 per cent of the biobased materials market by 2024. For example, although almost entirely disregard- ed within the Single Use Plastics directive (SUP) hastily rushed through by the EU just over twelve months ago, there are now fresh hopes that their application may be re-evaluated as a potential solution across the member states.
While the SUP’s central aim remains for all plastic packaging to be either reusable or recyclable by 2030, the process of acknowledging a role for compostability is under- way – with biodegradability specifi- cally within the marine environ- ment set for evaluation by 2027. The apparent softening in attitude to- wards ways in which compostables can make a positive contribution to a circular economy, however, is still tempered with some reservations, notes the European Commission’s Werner Bosmans, one of the princi-
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January-February 2020
lobal production capacity of bioplastics was 2.11m tonnes in 2019, and is expected to reach 2.43m tonnes by 2024. Despite an upwards 21 per cent growth rate, interim forecasts are comparatively
sluggish with uplifts of 1.6 and 0.9 per cent predicted respectively for 2021 and 2022. Plus, it still only rep- resents less than one per cent of all plastics produced annually.
The bioplastics industry must surely be wondering when its time may finally come, and what it’s go- ing to take to accelerate the direction of travel. Hitherto, its prospects have been largely pegged to the fortunes of the global oil barrel, whose price and availability can see-saw wildly either at the cost of extracting it from the ground or else on the whim of any head of state with a geo-political axe to grind. While a better-the-devil- you-know mindset has been able to
accommodate those potential risks, what is less and less palatable is the dawning realisation that our depen- dence upon fossil carbon is not only literally poisoning the well but also the entire planet.
While the impact on the environ- ment caused through transportation is undoubtedly the major villain of the carbon piece, graphic images of the damage caused by carelessly discarded plastic litter have proved to be a more compelling catalyst through which to spark a collective call to action at consumer level. Sustainability is now higher on the retail agenda than ever before. It was no coincidence that the term bio- plastics was noticeably referenced as ‘biobased materials’ by delegates at the European Bioplastics confer- ence (EuBP), held in Berlin on 3-4 December 2019.
Packaging continues to be the largest market segment for all
ABOVE: EuBP MD Hasso von Pogrell said the downturn in the production of bio-PET has negatively impacted the
non- biodegradables sector.
RIGHT: Sustainable lifestyle product start-up BE O’s founder, Damir Perkic.
OPPOSITE PAGE: Championing CO2 as a feedstock: Michael Carus, Nova Institute.