Page 44 - Packaging News Jan-Feb 2020

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PLASTICS & BIOPLASTICS
www.packagingnews.com.au
January-February 2020
The lower production is largely due to an apparent change of strat- egy by Coca-Cola, noted an EuBP spokesperson. While earlier positive predictions had been based upon the massive sup-
port being put into the Plant Bottle initiative, claims that a significant volume of bottles had been made of bio-PET proved to be inaccurate and not ‘the real thing’.
Some of the shortfall in overall drop-in capacity, however, could be made up by an increased adoption of Neste’s bio-PP, which is being forecast to exceed almost 130,000 tonnes by 2024 (from a current output of less than 20,000 tonnes). Developed from
waste plastic residue, oils and
fats, this is a significantly more ambitious target for bio-PP than the initially forecast of 30,000 tonnes volume it had initially been hoping to achieve by 2023.
What is helping to accelerate growth is the bio-polymer’s suitabil- ity for direct food contact and also medical product packaging, with Cofresco the most recent brand own- er to come on board, confirms Neste’s head of product marketing Lars Borger. “There is such a high level of interest from brand owners that we really don’t have to do that much to raise awareness; it’s them calling us. Our actual value proposi- tion is to stop fossil usage and to keep the carbon circulating as much as possible.”
It’s a principle that ex-RPC staffer Damir Percik has endorsed whole- heartedly in setting up his BE O start-up, which aims to roll out a range of sustainable, innovatively designed lifestyle
products made initial- ly from renewable bio- HDPE and bio-TPE. The first of these is now on the market: the portable, refillable BE O bottle. “We wanted to have a great looking, highly functional prod- uct that’s also made from a plant, that will build awareness that bioplastics is a solution to an oil-based plastics industry problem,” he says. “Things won’t change unless consum- ers start demanding it.
ABOVE: Compostable net for Parmentine vegetables (Silbo).
ABOVE RIGHT: The BE O bottle is made from bio-HDPE and bio-TPE.
BELOW: Fully compostable multi-layer stand-up pouch (Silbo).
We don’t talk about bioplastics any- more; we talk about plant-based ma- terials. Or ‘Plantastic’ materials that are different because of where they’re sourced, and are renewable. We can definitely convert the con- sumer because climate change is the number one issue at the moment – especially so with millennials – and we can help to solve that by switch- ing over to biobased materials.”
IS THE PROBLEM THE SOLUTION?
It may sound seem like hot air, but could the CO2 in the atmosphere be processed into a supplementary feedstock from which biobased ma- terials are produced?
“In order to stop climate change the main thing is to avoid activating additional fossil carbon from the geosphere. CO2 reutilisation is a wonderful solution for the future,” claims Michael Carus, MD of the in- dependent Nova bio-economy re- search institute. “The technology to do this is ready right now; it’s just a matter of political will and estab- lishing the right framework.”
Inevitably, the proposition met with some scepticism. “The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is less than one per cent,” points out Michigan State University emeritus professor of materials science Ra- mani Narayan. “The economics of taking it from the environment and trying to liquefy it don’t make sense. Let plants do their job – they do it better.”
Stephan Kabasci, head of bio- based plastics at the influential Fraunhofer Institute, had similar reservations. “We have the technol- ogy to do it from carbon dioxide but insufficient electricity to do so. In Germany alone, we’d need twice the level of electricity that we’re cur- rently using to produce an amount of hydrogen to replace our depen- dency on fossil fuel.”
With Carus insisting that LCA assessment shows this is possible and that there are many different companies in competition with one another looking at CO2 as a feed- stock, the debate looks sure to gain some momentum. In the meantime, the Nova Institute has established the CO2 Value Europe association through which the technology can have a voice, and aims to have a certification scheme in place by 2021 through which brands can demonstrate quotas of renewable carbon being used in their packag- ing. Watch this green space. ■
The 15th European Bioplastics Con- ference will be held from 1-2 Decem- ber 2020 at the Savoyen Hotel in Vi- enna, Austria.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Des King is a UK-based packaging journalist and a member of the International Packag- ing Press Organisation (IPPO).