Visit us: K 2007, Hall
Visit us: K 2007, Hall 5, Stand B21 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 Bottles made from bioplastics, particularly PLA bottles for the beverage and dairy industries, were the main editorial focus of our last issue. And since this special field of application is such a dynamic one, bioplastics MAGAZINE hosted the 1st PLA Bottle Conference in Hamburg in mid September. I must admit, the interest and participation at this conference exceeded our expectations. It was a great success, and you can read our summary report in this issue. One of the points frequently discussed about PLA is its limited market availability. Different courses of action are being taken with the aim of increasing production capacity. However, PLA is not the only bioplastic material. Many people who briefly evaluate the bioplastics scene come to a misleading conclusion: „bioplastics = PLA = not available, hence bioplastics are not available“. And that is clearly wrong. There are a number of different bioplastics available in sufficiently large quantities, including starch based materials or starch blends, cellulose based materials and more. So knowing this, the editorial focus of this issue is firmly on films and trays. We are grateful to Stuart Lendrum of Sainsbury‘s in the UK, who gave us the benefit of his experience and Sainsbury‘s philosophy in an interview. Sainsbury‘s announced last year that they were going to replace the packaging material of 500 product lines with biodegradable materials. Another highlight that plastics people (and not only bioplastics people) are looking forward to is the world‘s biggest plastics show – the K‘2007 in Düsseldorf, Germany from October 24 – 31. For those of our readers who are going to the „K“ show we have put together a preview, so that you can easily find your way through this mega event, and see all the exhibitors that are active in the field of bioplastics. And please don‘t forget to see the booth of bioplastics MAGAZINE in Hall 7, booth number C09. Special editorial Focus: Films, trays 03 | 2007 Vol. 2 ISSN 1862-5258 And of course in this issue, you’ll find much more of the latest bioplastics news, updates on materials, applications, politics, basics, opinions, events and much more. Michael Thielen Publisher K‘2007 preview | 13 Industrial Composting | 36 Logos, Part 5 | 38 bioplastics MAGAZINE bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/07] Vol. 2
