On 18 April, the European Parliament approved the package to update the EU waste legislation, including a revision of the Waste Framework Directive and the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive. Apart from new ambitious recycling and landfilling targets to boost the re-use of valuable materials in waste, the new legislation also acknowledges that bio-based [...]
A report from bioeconomy consultants NNFCC has found that a paradigm shift from oil-based plastic to plastics produced from renewable materials and designed to be recyclable or biodegradable, offers the potential to address the issues with plastics while retaining its many benefits. Adrian Higson, Lead Consultant Bio-based Products at NNFCC said in an interview: [...]
NatureWorks names Richard Altice new President and CEO: On 24 April, NatureWorks' board of directors named Richard Altice as the company's new President and Chief Executive Officer, replacing Marc Verbruggen, who led the company from 2008 to his retirement in 2017. Altice comes to NatureWorks from PolyOne Corporation where he was Senior Vice President [...]
On 16 January 2018, the European Commission published its Communication ‘A European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy’. According to the Commission, this proposal is an ambitious step towards making the European plastics system more resource-efficient and drive the change from a linear to a circular system. Bioplastics provide crucial impulses for innovation [...]
Concerns about harmful chemicals, health and environmental effects lead more and more parents and toymakers alike to switch to high-quality, sustainable, and safe toys made from bio-based instead from petroleum-based materials. Next to a growing number of new start-ups developing bioplastics toys, big players such as Lego and Hasbro are also investing heavily in [...]
Mathew Halter The joint venture of DuPont and Tate & Lyle has developed a proprietary process that uses plant-based instead of petroleum-based feedstocks to produce 1,3-propanediol. Today, the company provides solutions for a wide variety of markets and applications through its bio-based performance brands Susterra® and Zemea® propanediol in addition to Bio-PDO™, [...]
Without a doubt, this is the coolest (pun intended) news about an application for bioplastics. Electrolux, the leading group of global household product brands, unveiled the world’s first concept fridge made of bioplastics. All visible parts of the refrigerator prototype are made of bioplastics. The material used in the refrigerator is derived from renewable [...]
Constance Ißbrücker, Head of Environmental Affairs, EUBP The consequences of climate change and the finite nature of fossil resources constitute two broadly acknowledged challenges for society in the decades to come. Bioplastics, which are derived fully or at least in part from renewable resources, have the unique advantage over conventional plastics to [...]
PHA from sewage sludge enters demonstration phase: The Phario project produces PHA at the biological sewage treatment plant in Bath, the Netherlands, which is run by the Brabantse Delta water board. The processes required for purifying sewage water breeds bacteria that can produce 0.47 grams of PHA per gram of organic matter in the [...]
Revised legislative package on waste acknowledges that bioplastics play a key role in achieving EU recycling goals Berlin, 28 February 2018 – The provisional agreements reached by the European Council and Parliament on the EU waste legislative package published by the Commission in 2015, recognise the benefits of bioplastics. The new legislation acknowledges that [...]
