Page 38 - Packaging News Magazine Jan-Feb 21
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BIOPLASTICS | UPDATE www.packagingnews.com.au | January-February 2021
A budding force of nature
Capacity might be steadily building but the bio-based materials sector still has a lot of ground to cover towards making a significant impression within the global packaging market, reports Des King.
further 42 per cent over the next five years. It will by then account for barely 3 per cent of the total market. A direct knock-on effect has been to reduce the packaging sector’s overall take-up of bioplastics from two- thirds of total capacity in 2018 to a current level of 47 per cent; but still the largest single recipient, and hope- fully not a steadily diminishing one. “In hindsight, capacity estimates for bio-PET were far too high,” observes European Bioplastics md Hasso von Pogrell. “In reality, only 10 to 15 per cent of what was forecast was ever produced. Happily, however, capac- ity and consumption estimates for other bio-based solutions are running very much in line.”
In some cases they’re accelerating ahead of them. PLA continues to be the bio-based industry’s brightest prospect. Demonstrating better per- formance attributes compared with starch-based alternatives, PLA is increasingly being preferred for com- pounded solutions and currently accounts for 18.7 per cent of total capacity making it the lead biopoly- mer overall, and set to retain poll position with a 19.5 share by 2025; an individual growth trajectory of 42 per cent. Driving capacity will be NatureWork’s phased expansion in Nebraska (US), and Total Corbion’s plans to build a new 100,000 tonne facility in France.
PERCEPTIONS AND REALITIES
Contrary to any supposition that the blindsiding impact of Covid-19 might have focused attention even more acutely on the unpredictability of our relationship with nature – so making
LAST December’s European Bioplastics Conference (EuBP) opted for the socially distanced security afforded by Zoom rather than the collegiate comfort of a Viennese hotel meeting room. Well done for keeping calm and
carrying on but the absence of the customary snap and crackle of direct interaction rather mirrored the unex- citing progress made by the bio-based sector over the past year. Predictions of a 36 per cent overall growth trajec- tory to expand global capacity to 2.8m tonnes of bio-based materials by 2025 are all well and good until assessed in context of representing below one per cent of the 357m tonnes of all plastic in circulation world- wide. As a viable alternative to its fossil-based counterpart they clearly need to carry a lot more weight than that to be a serious contributor to the circular economy.
The most notable aspect of the bio- based sector’s direction of travel and aspirations to play a role within the circular economy is the widening gap between compostable and non-biode- gradable polymers. Currently, the for- mer accounts for 58 per cent of over- all capacity and is set to be closer to two-thirds of total production by 2025; a growth rate of 47 per cent. Conversely, the production of like for like drop-ins is predicted to expand at only 22 per cent; this despite a posi- tive take-up of bio-PE – well on its way towards accounting for 45 per cent of the non-biodegradable sector – and bio-PP, which has achieved a four-fold increase in adoption since its introduction two years ago.
The packaging industry’s disen- chantment with bio-PET since it was ditched by Coca-Cola in favour of rPET shows little prospect of abating, and is predicted to decline by a
BELOW: Cosmetics packaging made from bioPE (FKuR)
The packaging industry’s disenchantment with bio-PET since it was ditched by Coca-Cola in favour of rPET shows little prospect of abating.”