European Bioplastics joins “BioPlastik” network
European Bioplastics joined the German specialized network “BioPlastik” that aims at promoting bioplastics. By joining forces in projects around innovative, bio-based, biodegradable, and affordable biopolymers, the network members seek to facilitate bioplastics’ access to the mass market.
Bioplastics Week 2021
The Plastics Industry Association’s Bioplastics Division will host the seventh-annual Bioplastics Week (BPW) from 13-17 September, 2021. BPW is a social media campaign created to increase the visibility for bioplastics by driving digital conversations via social media posts that feature digital content, such as infographics, reports, blog posts, and videos. Everyone is invited to join the campaign and like, share, and retweet the published content or even post its own. BPW is an excellent opportunity to educate consumers and the plastics industry about bioplastics. To follow Bioplastics Week along on social media, you can use the hashtag #BioplasticsWeek. As official supporter of the campaign, European Bioplastics will be active on Twitter (EUBioplastics) and LinkedIn (EuropeanBioplastics).
EU single-use plastic ban fails to account for bioplastics
To combat the proliferation of plastic litter, the European Parliament passed a directive in 2019 to that purpose. The ‘Single-Use Plastics Directive’ which came into effect on July 3, 2021, aims to ban ten of the most common plastic types found on European beaches by 2021 as well as to significantly reduce the number of plastic cups and containers by 2028. Yet the single use ban as currently envisioned by the EU may stifle attempts to produce sustainable solutions to tackle plastic waste. This has to do with the way the directive defines the word ‘plastic’. As such, the term encompasses not only fossil-based plastics but all plastics that have been chemically modified – including your run of the mill bio-based, biodegradable plastics. The definition in question is so broad that it technically extends to fried eggs, as the heating process causes the egg to undergo chemical modification, resulting in substances the directive would term as “plastic”.