Packaging News
Despite only accounting for barely 1% of the total volume of 335m tonnes of plastics in circulation, there is a growing sense of confidence amongst developers of biobased polymers that their sustainable credentials now represent an increasingly viable option for brand owners in the aftermath of ‘Blue Planet’.
“The global market for bioplastics is predicted to grow by roughly 25% over the next five years,” noted European Bioplastics (EuBP) managing director Hasso von Pogrell, addressing the by 420 delegates from more than 253 companies and 40 different countries attending the associations’ annual conference in Berlin last December. “This trend is possible thanks to the increasing demand for sustainable products by both consumers and brands alike, stronger policy support for the bio-economy, and the continuous efforts of the bioplastics industry to develop innovative materials with improved properties and new functionalities.”
The bioplastics sector maintained a marked silence when the detritus was hitting the fan of horrified public opinion this time last year; this to the surprise of some retail industry observers, who saw it as a missed opportunity for grabbing market share at the expense of its fossil-based competition. In the prevailing glare of negative publicity, however, not only wasn’t there much of a mind to evaluate distinctions between what emanated from an oil-well or a plantation, but the difficulty in drawing distinctions between a drop-in PET bottle made from sugar cane and its conventionally produced counterpart, both in the context of littering with much the same life-expectancy.
More specifically with regard to the impact of compostables upon marine pollution, whilst decomposition can be completed within a matter of months on dry land it can take up to five years for a biobased bag to dissolve in the North Atlantic or even half that time in warmer waters. “A turtle doesn’t care whether the straw is biodegradable or not; it still hurts just as much,” notes Dr Miriam Weber, director of Hydra Marine Sciences.
With much of the negative emotion generated by the ‘big plastics debate’ dissipated and aisles rather than being free-from reflecting a less is more approach, the biobased sector is hoping to capitalise on the new mindfulness underpinning brand/consumer interaction.
IKEA and Lego are the latest global brands to have switched their manufacturing lines from running oil-based polymers to bio alternatives – and in the case of IKEA, providing sufficient end-user incentive to enable the Finnish feedstock supplier Neste to develop a bio-PP drop-in from oil, fats and waste plastic residue: a world first. Head of product marketing emerging businesses Lars Borger is confident that where IKEA has led with bio-PP other leading brands will follow. “Looking forward it’s scalable to hundreds of thousands of tonnes depending on the balance between demand and the availability of the feedstock. Whilst IKEA is currently only using bio-PP for their products, it could easily be extended to some appropriate packaging applications too.”
The prospects for bio-PP are sufficiently promising for EuBP to estimate that it will account for a 1.4.% market share by 2023; a volume of around 30,000 tonnes. Not that great a quantity perhaps, but pretty good going for a new polymer starting from scratch.
Such positive predictions do need to be tempered with a degree of caution, however. Whilst bio-PP might be the current poster boy for a more sustainable approach to plastic packaging, the prospects for PEF (polyethylene furanoate) – whose advanced barrier and thermal properties make it an ideal material for beverage bottles, and its predecessor as the bio-polymer to watch – are less certain.
Indeed, delays to the scheduled date of 2021 for a projected 50,000 tonne capacity pilot site to come on stream in Antwerp have resulted in the dissolution of the Synvina partnership between BASF and Avantium that was hitherto taking development forward.
Having previously expressed interest in PEF as one of a number of high-profile potential adopters, M&S now has reservations says senior packaging technologist Kevin Vyse. “I think it is a viable replacement for PET – however, there are questions over the extent of the feedstock they need in order to get their production plant into full working order.
“I also believe that they have to think hard about end of life issues. One of the challenges we put to them is whilst PET can be recycled with a degree of PEF up to a certain level, beyond that it’ll need its own dedicated recycling and identification process. I’m not sure that we had the answers to that when we were starting to look at this last year.”
Invaluable resource
There is a growing acceptance that plastic is not so much a necessary evil as an invaluable resource contributing towards the furtherance of a circular economy; the focus increasingly being placed on recyclability driven in equal measure by environmental considerations and the commercial realities of the supply chain.
But isn’t extending the usefulness of what’s already out there likely to preclude the need for casting around for alternatives? Not so, says Vyse. “The circular economy addresses how we run businesses in the future. If a biobased product was shown to facilitate circularity then that’s fair game because it’s sustainable; ‘drop-ins’ are just like for like plastic derived from another source. We have a finite resource and Planet Earth is going to have to give up an awful lot to support the nine billion people we’ve got to feed. Whether it is vegetable based, waste based or whatever it’s going to be very difficult to keep things going at the current rate.
“One of the ways to mitigate some of that is to make sure we move much more towards a zero-waste mentality; that can as equally apply to a natural based product as one that’s fossil based.”
More problematical hitherto has been the lack of infrastructure needed to recover flexible film packaging, but it’s here that biobased solutions are making a unique difference as the optimum solution for single-use applications and one that is being supported through guidelines and government-backed legislation in an expanding number of countries. The most recent of these is Austria, where the total replacement of PE single-use shopping bags by an EN 13432 certified ‘bio-cycle’ alternative will be mandatory as of 2020.
Not surprisingly, compostables are predicted to grow at a far faster rate than like for like drop-ins over the next five years – a 40% uplift compared to around 11% for bio-PE/ PP/PET et al – and to account for 60% of an overall 2.61m tonnes biobased output by 2023 (source: European Bioplastics).
As well as extending market share, degradation times are shortening too. According to Mark Shaw, NPD technical manager at the UK’s Parkside Flexibles, industrial and home composting time-frames for their multi-layer bio-PBS (polybutylene succinate) and cellulose stand-up pouch (SUP) are fully certified as 12 weeks and 26 weeks respectively. In addition, and although as yet uncertified, pouches are capable of decomposing within 30 weeks in a marine environment.
Parkside has been ahead of the rest of the pack having spent the past eight years developing compostable flexible packaging; largely in isolation, although Amcor was an early potential competitor. With the interest now being shown by some of the larger brands in a biobased solution for food-contact film, Parkside’s perseverance is now beginning to pay off.
There’s more to come, says Shaw. “We’re focused upon options for sustainability, of which composting is one – but not the full solution. It should only be used where it adds benefit. We’re also looking at developing mechanical recycling options as well including multi-layer barrier laminates that can be recycled via the PE chain.”
Meanwhile, having produced the worlds’ first-ever compostable crisps pack for the Two Farmers brand, it has just attained the same status with ground coffee for Percol, which is adopting a compostable format for its entire range in line with its ‘plastic-free’ positioning.
Compostability may be possible, but that doesn’t automatically make it viable. “Not only is the UK Plastics Pact currently more focused upon recyclability than compostables in line with supporting the principles of a circular economy, but there has to be some doubt over the extent to which consumers are geared up to compost used biobased flexible packaging,” notes Coveris UK group technical director Will Mercer.
“Obviously we’re keeping all options open within our Pack Positive initiative. Whilst there was an initial surge of interest from customers in what biobased might be able to offer, but that has slowed down given the lack of infrastructure in terms of waste recovery.”
As a film manufacturer and with the emphasis being very much on recyclability that’s where we are mainly focused, confirms Mercer, referencing the fully recyclable PE solutions developed by Coveris for the Co-op and Tesco – with consumers being encouraged to return film post-use for it to be then incorporated within the retailers’ own waste streams.
