Materials News
Budding market for bioplastics The biobased plastics market is expected to blossom into a million dollar industry with the plastics sector’s commitment to sustainability remaining a strong driving force behind its growth, says Angelica Buan.
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umanity depends heavily on plants as a source of food, the catalyst of the air it breathes, and the backbone of its environment. Now, plants are being utilised as feedstock for plastics, for industries to manufacture products from renewable resources such as crops, biomass and algae.
Demand for plant-based packaging The global bioplastics market is driven by the emergence of renewable resources, biomass, and biobased raw materials such as starch and vegetable crop derivatives. In 2015, biobased bioplastics accounted for more than 80% of the global bioplastics market, in a number of applications such as packaging and domestic goods, thus weaning off overdependence on petroleum-based plastics. According to Smithers Rapra, non-durable and semidurable applications of biopolymers occupy over 75% of the market. These applications are usually designed for one-time-use and usually they end up in a landfill. Biodegradable products degrade from naturally occurring microorganisms over a period of time. It is an important way to remove waste from the environment, breaking down organic matter into nutrients that can be used by other organisms. For this reason, biodegradability is considered to be the important application driver – a property that is well met by some biopolymers, especially PLA, PHA, PBS and a few other aliphatic polyesters and starch compounds. Food and beverage are key drivers in the bioplastics packaging market, accounting for a CAGR of nearly 37% from 2014-2020, citing a research report by Persistence Market Research.
Plants and crops are being utilised as feedstock for bioplastics
Biobased plastics or bioplastics, according to a report from BCC Research, rely on an estimated 0.01% of the global agricultural area of 5 billion ha. The UK research firm projects that bioplastics production could grow by 271% by 2020 from 2015, consuming some 0.04% of farm products produced from about 0.04% of total global agricultural area by 2020. Another UK research firm, Smithers Rapra, pegs the global biopolymers consumption at 2.18 million tonnes this year, marked by varying growth rates due to availability of raw materials such as sugar cane, corn, and other useful crops, technology availability and policies favourable to bioplastics. By 2021, it says, global biopolymer demand is forecast to rise to about 6 million tonnes, growing at an annual rate of around 19%.
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NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2016
Some major food companies have developed plant-based packaging, driving market growth for bioplastics