Bioplastics industry defies economic crisis

European Bioplastics association has recently stated that an increasing number of renowned brand owners are turning to bioplastics to enhance their products image. While Coca-Colarecently kicked off a marketing campaign in selected countries introducing the PET PlantBottle (which contains 30% of plant based material), Samsungintroduced the Samsung Reclaim, a cell phone partly made of biodegradable plastics. The German discounters Aldi introduced biodegradable shopping bags, letting customers decide between compostable and conventional plastic bags. Hyundaidraws on PLA for the interior of its next generation hybrid car, and Frito-layannounced the use of bioplastics in their SunChips packaging. Despite the economic crisis, European Bioplastics members are investing in new plants, in further innovation and cooperations. For example, NatureWorks just doubled its production capacity of PLA and Braskem made big investments for this years start-up of bio-based PE. BASF introduced new biodegradable plastics for coating paper and shrink-film while Novamont launched the 2nd generation of Mater-Bi, and Purac, Sulzer and Synbra kicked off a cooperation in the field of foamed PLA products.