Don’t worry, the raw
Don’t worry, the raw material for Ecovio ® is renewable. Ecovio ® , a biodegradable plastic from the PlasticsPlus TM product line, is keeping up with the times when it comes to plastic bags and food packaging. Ecovio ® is made of corn starch, a renewable raw material, and it has properties like HD-PE, which translates into a double plus point for you. Films made of Ecovio ® are water-resistant, very strong and degrade completely in composting facilities within just a few weeks. www.ecovio.com I N N O VAT I O N R E L I A B I L I T Y PA R T N E R S H I P D I V E R S I T Y
Editorial dear readers When you have this, the sixth issue of bioplastics MAGAZINE for 2008, in your hand, you know we are approaching the end of the year - a year that has been filled with exciting developments and events. Be it the announcement of significant new production capacities to be built, or of the many new bioplastics applications that were introduced onto the market. The list of events in 2008 was headed, at least for me, by the huge ‘Bioplastics in Packaging’ special show within the framework of the world‘s leading packaging exhibition, ‘interpack 2008’ in Düsseldorf, Germany. The ‘3 rd European Bioplastics Conference’ in November in Berlin again attracted about 300 experts from all over the world, and among many other events there was our own ‘1 st PLA World Congress’ in Munich. But there were, of course, also events in places other than Germany. There was ‘Innovation takes Root’ in Las Vegas, and we also shipped boxes and boxes of the bioplastics MAGAZINE to other conferences in the USA, China, Thailand, The Netherlands, Spain, and many other places. But it wasn’t exclusively positive support and encouragement that was experienced by plastics made from renewable resources. One of the controversial issues that we are faced with is the constantly recurring debate on bioplastics versus food, although I think that the main focus today is on the discussion around biofuels. I believe (and I am not the only one, I assume) that biofuels are not exactly the smartest approach. I don’t think it is too clever to burn agricultural products directly. It’s much better to produce useful (for example bioplastics) products and use and recycle these as often as possible. After a long and useful life and, wherever possible, ‘cascade’ recycling, the material can still be incinerated to recover the energy stored in it. And by the way: the amount of agricultural crops used for bioplastics is much lower than that used for biofuels. One of the editorial focuses in this issue of bioplastics MAGAZINE is films and flexibles, and a second highlight is on paper coating. I hope you enjoy reading this issue and would very much appreciate receiving your comments, or indeed any contributions about the ‘food versus …’ topic for our coming issues. Nathalie Gorce-Joire (Limagrain) at the 3rd European Bioplastics Conference Yours, Michael Thielen bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/08] Vol. 3
