DuPont wins 2017 European Company of the Year Award for bio-based materials: DuPont Industrial Biosciences (DuPont) has been awarded the 2017 European Company of the Year Award for bio-based materials, reflecting the company’s position “at the vanguard of innovation, developing cutting-edge, bio-based materials that improve customers' lives and meet market needs for high-performing, sustainable [...]
Earlier this month, Germany’s Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament, approved a new packaging law (Verpackungsgesetz) aimed at boosting recycling of packaging waste. It also stipulates that the systems collecting the waste fees are obliged to create incentives that encourage the use of recycled material or material from renewable sources for the production of [...]
Bio-based plastics can be mechanically recycled just like conventional plastics and biodegradable plastics are not a solution to the plastic soup in the oceans. These are two key findings in the report ‘Biobased and biodegradable plastics – Facts and Figures’, released by Wageningen Food & Biobased Research. The report takes stock of scientific knowledge on [...]
Synvina receives interim approval for bio-based PEF recyclability: Amsterdam-based Synvina CV has received interim approval from the European PET bottle platform (EPBP) for the recyclability of its bio-based polyethylenefuranoate (PEF) materials in the European bottle recycling market. The BASF-Avantium joint venture, which was set up in October last year, will produce bio-based furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) [...]
This year’s interpack, the world’s largest trade show for packaging, stretching over a whole week from 4 to 10 May 2017, attracted over 170,000 visitors from 168 countries to the Messe Duesseldorf, Germany. Besides the latest developments in world-class machinery and technology for the production and of packaging materials, three major themes dominated this [...]
As set out in the amemdment of the EU Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste from 2015, the European Commission was tasked to assess the impacts of so-called “oxo-degradable” plastics on the environment and propose “a set of measures to limit their consumption or to reduce any harmful impacts“. To inform the Commission’s decision [...]
The ongoing revision of the European Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste (94/62/EC) represents a concrete opportunity for the bioeconomy sector in Europe and the transition to a circular economy. Earlier in March this year, the European Parliament voted, for the first time ever, for an amendment of this directive that requires Member States [...]
In a new fun video, German bioplastics specialist FKuR Kunststoff GmbH demonstrates the benefits of home compostable bags, which make the separate collection of biowaste more practical and hygienic, raising acceptance levels for the collection at home, and thus increasing the volumes of biowaste collected and the amount of valuable compost produced from it. [...]
Audi, BASF and Covestro develop automotive clearcoat with bio-based hardener: A project team consisting of employees of the car maker Audi, BASF´s Coatings division and materials company Covestro has developed a clearcoat containing a bio-based hardener that was applied to test bodies of the Audi Q2 under near-series conditions at the Audi plant in [...]
When EU leaders gathered in Brussels at the beginning of March to discuss how to generate growth, create jobs and improve competitiveness in Europe, the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, set out his vision of Europe - a vision in which bioplastics are a concrete example of the pioneering innovations of the [...]