News Another 5 Year Jubilee “Limagrain Céréales Ingrédients (LCI) are also celebrating five years – their five-year involvement with bioplastics,” explains Nathalie Gorce, Marketing Manager for biolice at LCI. “We will focus here on food packaging, a dynamic sector where innovation is an essential development. Long regarded as an accessory to the product inside, food packaging is now an important part of the production chain that connects the product to the consumer.” In addition to its role of protection and conservation of a product - and communication of brand image through package design - environmental awareness has become a key consideration in the development of a package, whether flexible or rigid. The market for bioplastics is one that is growing both in technological and commercial terms. The raw materials now available offer a wide range of high-tech options to meet the requirements of this market. Agricultural resources provide a renewable energy source that is one of the main alternatives to the use of oil-based resources for many applications. The use of biomass is also a driver for new products by providing new functionality. In this way, the development of bioplastics is part of the overall issue of sustainable development. LCI is at the heart of these market expectations and developments. “Our strength lies in our ability to combine the agricultural and environmental needs of farmers with the industrial and technological requirements of manufacturers,” says Nathalie. Biolice is an environment-friendly bioplastic that offers a high quality alternative to ordinary plastics for flexible applications such as bags, industrial films as well as rigid thermoformed and shaped extruded products - ideal for the packaging industry. After use and disposal it is broken down by micro-organisms and produces humus. In producing biolice, we work with our member farmers to control the production of the maize raw material from seed and have created a unique site where processing, storage and transformation into biolice granules are situated together to limit transport and protect traceability. Helping to develop the market for bioplastics allows us to work with customers to focus on important issues such as improving environmental protection - including limiting emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change. It also helps to ensure economic growth, especially that of rural areas, by providing farmers with new market opportunities for their output - thus meeting our strategy of developing added value cereal crops for our farmer members. www.lci.limagrain.com Frost and Sullivan Rewards BIOPAR Technology Based on the findings of the Best Practices research, Frost & Sullivan presents the Award in Starch Polymers Market to BIOP. “At BIOP they go an extra mile to clearly understand and design a product according to the needs of the consumers”, says Senior Research Analyst Dr. Sujatha Vijayan. She adds: “It distinguishes itself with a novel technology platform which is very promising”. The technology platform allows combining different polymers and starches in order to match best the properties and requirements the customer asks for. The success of the technology today shows clearly that BIOPAR ® can do more. “We foresee the Biopar technology becoming world standard in starch polymers”, Frits P.E.A. de Jong, CEO of Biopolymer Technologies AG (BIOP) is convinced. “We are very pleased to be presented as the 2011 Award winner for the European Product Differentiation Excellence Award from Frost and Sullivan”, says de Jong “This recognition validates the outstanding performance of our bi-continuous-phase technology” www.biop.eu 6 bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/11] Vol. 6
News iBIB 2011 - The First International Business Directory Compostable Netting The main objective of the European ECOBIONET project is the market introduction of new products for the packaging of fresh food with the added advantages of biodegradability and environmental sustainability. This will enable manufacturers to minimize the environmental impact by reducing the generation of plastic waste. To achieve this, four companies from Germany, Belgium and Spain are working together with the research organisation AIMPLAS on the implementation of new materials and processes for biodegradable and compostable packaging nets. Partners are the German company Tecnaro, OWS from Belgium and the Spanish net producers Cristobal Meseguer and Ecoplas. The target markets are agricultural and shellfish products. Four different types of nets will be developed during the ECOBIONET project period: These will be oriented and non-oriented nets of two or three filaments in combination with plastic sheets. The nets will be manufactured in a conventional one-step extrusion melt-spinning process. As a specific objective, the biodegradable nets developed in the project must meet the requirements for the final application (packaging of agricultural and shellfish products). The nets must be mechanically comparable to the currently used nets based on polyolefins, and they must be cost-competitive. In addition the new nets must be completely biodegradable and compostable (EN 13432) in order to obtain the right to use the eco-label/compostable logo. The European Commission is funding this project in the scope of the ‘CIP-Eco-Innovation’ programme. The partners are using and adapting compounds which were developed in a previous European CRAFT project, which was the basis of ECOBIONET. MT The market for bio-based plastics and composites continues to grow at double-figure rates and has now gained true international status. However, the new market functions based mainly on ‘insider-knowledge’ and therefore lacks transparency. The international business directory iBIB 2011 comprises information on about 70 major companies, associations and R&D organisations from 17 countries on four continents. Publishers are the renowned nova-Institute and bioplastics MAGAZINE. The iBIB 2011 will enable industrial suppliers and customers to reach out to one another. It will help companies to find the best bio-based solutions available worldwide within the sectors of bio-based plastics, composites and green additives. Via print and PDF versions the iBIB 2011 will reach ten thousands potential customers. The print version will be distributed free of charge by the publishers and partners at trade fairs, exhibitions and conferences worldwide, the PDF version will be made available to a wide audience via email and websites. The online database with detailed index will help to reach a supplier in a most targeted way. At www.bio-based.eu/ iBIB a free and direct access to the database with more than 100 specific criteria is open to everyone. Also the full PDF version is available for free. Companies, associations or institutes are welcome to join the business directory at any time and will immediately be included in our online database. They will also automatically be included in the next print edition iBIB 2012 . www.bio-based.eu/iBIB www.aimplas.es/proyectos/ecobionet bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/11] Vol. 6 7
