Content June 02|2007
Content June 02|2007 Editorial 03 News 05 Suppliers Guide 43 Events 45 Applications Shrink sleeves 24 Non-wovens made from PLA 26 Mulch films made from PLA blends 28 Politics What’s happening in the New World? 30 From Science & Research Novel nanostructured polylactides 32 Protein-based plastics 34 Basics Bioplastics vs. agricultural land 36 Logos Part 4: The Scandinavian „apples“ 38 Glossary 40 Review PLA hot topic at PETnology Forum 42 Special Five PLA bottle pioneers 10 Biodegradable caps 18 Processing Blowing your own PLA bottles 20 Interview: PLA blow moulding 22 Impressum Publisher / Editorial Dr. Michael Thielen Samuel Brangenberg Layout/Production Mark Speckenbach, Jörg Neufert Head Office Polymedia Publisher GmbH Hackesstr. 99 41066 Mönchengladbach Germany phone: +49 (0)2161 664864 fax: +49 (0)2161 631045 info@bioplasticsmagazine.com www.bioplasticsmagazine.com Media Adviser Elke Schulte, Katrin Stein phone: +49(0)2359-2996-0 fax: +49(0)2359-2996-10 es@bioplasticsmagazine.com Print Tölkes Druck + Medien GmbH Höffgeshofweg 12 47807 Krefeld Germany Print run: 5,000 copies bioplastics magazine ISSN 1862-5258 bioplastics magazine is published 4 times in 2007 and 6 times a year from 2008. This publication is sent to qualified subscribers (149 Euro for 6 issues). bioplastics MAGAZINE is read in 80 countries. Not to be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher The fact that product names may not be identified in our editorial as trade marks is not an indication that such names are not registered trade marks. bioplastics MAGAZINE tries to use British spelling. However, in articles based on information from the USA, American spelling may also be used. bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/07] Vol. 2
News New bioplastic bottles with pearl-lustre effect Biopearls R.O.J. Jongboom Holding B.V. from Zetten, The Netherlands is a company specialized on tailormade bioplastics injection moulding compounds. Remy Jongboom, Direktor of Biopearls now introduced bioplastics bottles with a pearllustre effect. The bottles are stretch blow moulded from preforms made of a material that is based on PLA. “In a cooperation with the Technical University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands, we could test the processing of a new formulation of Biopearlscompounds,“ says Remy. “We extruded some sort of tapes and found out, that, when stretched, the mechanical properties of the tapes were significantly increased.“ In cooperation with a company that makes preforms and PET bottles Remy Jongboom manufactured the first preforms and 0.5 Litre bottles with the new Biopearls compound. These bottles had such a good quality and beautiful appearance that not long after the first customers asked Biopearls B.V. for the supply of his new pearl-lustre effect bottles. The material is a blend of PLA and other bioplastics materials that is not as brittle as pure PLA, so that the bottles feature a certain soft touch effect. The majority of the mix is based on renewable resources, as Remy puts it. “And not only is the bottle made of this Biopearls compound, the cap is injection moulded from a similar material with a slightly different elasticity for a good seal.“ Ideal applications are the cosmetics and healthcare sector, as Remy points out, especially for those neat little bottles you find in hotel rooms. Other customer requests target applications such as paraffin oil (lamp oil). Metabolix and AMD announce brand name Mirel TM and publish an amazing Internet survey Metabolix, Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) headquartered in Decatour, Illinois, USA, announced that they have named their Joint venture Telles TM , after the Roman goddess of the Earth. Telles is now building its first commercial scale plant for the production of PHA in Clinton, Iowa, USA. This plant is expected to start up in 2008 and will produce the corn-based polyhydroxyalkanoate at an annual rate of about 50,000 tons. The family of high performance natural plastics that are biobased, sustainable and completely biodegradable, as the company states, will be marketed and sold under the brand name Mirel Natural Plastics. Internet survey In April of 2007 the US online market research firm InsightExpress conducted a USA-wide online survey for Telles: Here are some of the results in brief, detailed results and their interpretation can be found at www.metabolix.com. 1. 72% of respondents do not know that plastic is made out of crude oil/petroleum. 2. On average, respondents estimated 38% of plastic material is recycled (the reality is less than 6%, according to the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)). 3. Nearly 40% (38.1%) of respondents said plastic will biodegrade under ground, in home compost, in landfills, or in the ocean (plastic will not biodegrade in any of these environments). 4. After learning that plastic is made from oil and never biodegrades, half (50.1%) of respondents stated they would be likely or very likely to pay 5-10% more for a natural, biodegradable plastic. Only 24% were unlikely/very unlikely to pay this much more. “Everyone knows about the reliance on oil and the impact that petroleum use has on climate change,“ said Jim Barber, President and CEO of Metabolix. “Similarly, people see a lot of plastic waste in the form of litter. But the fact that so many people are unaware that plastic is made from oil and that it will persist in the environment for thousands of years, shows the need for education about the impact of plastic on the environment and the various alternatives made from renewable resources.“ www.biopearls.nl www.metabolix.com www.admworld.com bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/07] Vol. 2
