On 7 April 2016, the European Parliament Intergroup on ‘Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development’ invited a group of policy-makers and experts from regional authorities, NGOs and other stakeholders along the plastics value chain to discuss the challenges and opportunities of the role of plastics in the circular economy at a meeting entitled "The [...]
Partnership between BASF and Avantium to produce FDCA and PEF Earlier this year, BASF and Avantium announced their plans of a joint venture for the production of furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) and polyethylenefuranotate (PEF) from renewable resources. FDCA is the essential chemical building block for the production of PEF, which is particularly suitable for certain food [...]
Since January 2015, separate collection of organic waste is mandatory in Germany. The implementation, however, has been rather slow, and not all municipalities provide separate biowaste collection schemes yet. The German association for compostable products ‘Verbund kompostierbare Produkte e.V.’ therefore recently called for municipalities to implement the separate collection of biowaste and support the [...]
Certified bio-based and compostable coffee capsule for Nespresso systems Original Food GmbH presented a certified compostable coffee capsule for Nespresso systems at Biofach 2016 trade fair earlier in February. With the launch of the capsule, the producer of the renowned Kaffa wild coffee underlines its commitment in environmental protection and sustainability, including the entire [...]
Composting Compostability is a clear benefit when plastic items are mixed with biowaste. Under these conditions, mechanical recycling is not feasible, neither for plastics nor biowaste. The use of compostable plastics makes the mixed waste suitable for organic recycling (composting), enabling the shift from recovery to recycling (a treatment option [...]
Mechanical recycling As most conventional plastics, biobased plastics need to be recycled in separate streams for each material type (e.g. PET-stream). Where a recycling stream for a specific plastic type is established (e.g. PE or PET), the biobased alternatives (bio-PE, bio-PET) can be recycled together with their conventional counterparts. [...]
Waste management and recovery options for bioplastics Bioplastics are suitable for a broad range of end-of-life options, including reuse, mechanical recycling, organic recycling, and energy recovery. The overwhelming part of the bioplastic volume produced today can easily be recycled alongside their conventional counterparts where separate recycling streams for certain [...]
On 2 December 2015, the European Commission (EC) published the long awaited new Circular Economy Proposal. European Bioplastics (EUBP) welcomes the EC’s proposal and is looking forward to contributing to the debate on how renewable and biodegradable materials can best fit into this vision. "The proposal is an important step towards closing the carbon [...]
The 10th European Bioplastics Conference took place on 5/6 November 2015 in Berlin, attracting more than 350 participants from industry, policy, research, and media. In his keynote speech, Mr Reinhard Büscher, Head of Unit Chemicals, DG GROWTH at the European Commission, stressed the necessity to promote biobased products in the European Union in order [...]
Press Release Commission’s Circular Economy Proposal leaves room for more ambitious actions on bio-industries such as bioplastics Berlin, 2 December 2015. With its new proposal on the Circular Economy Package in Europe, presented today, the European Commission outlines plans that respond to some of the main challenges of our time: the waste of energy [...]