Application News The new
Application News The new Cardia Compostable Bubble Wrap is destined for the European market. Compostable bubble wrap Cardia Bioplastics, headquartered in Mulgrave, Victoria, Australia recently announced the launch of the Cardia Compostable Bubble Wrap. Cardia Compostable Bubble Wrap extends the product range made from Cardia’s certified compostable resins into protective packaging. Working closely with a European manufacturer of protective packaging Cardia Bioplastics has developed Compostable Bubble Wrap made from its certified compostable resin and launches it into the European market. Cardia Compostable Bubble Wrap provides comparable protective packaging performance to traditional bubble wrap with the added advantage of being made from certified compostable resin (TPS based), thereby offering industrial composting as an alternative end of life option. According to Frank Glatz, Managing Director of Cardia Bioplastics, the renewable content of the compostable resins varies with products and applications. The resins are independently certified biodegradable and compostable to Europe EN13432, USA ASTM D6400, Australia AS4736, and Japan Green Pla standards. Bubble wrap is widely used in storage and transport to protect fragile and sensitive items. Its usage has significantly increased over the years including within transport packaging for perishable items such as fruit, vegetable, plants and flowers. Perishable items protected in transport by traditional bubble wrap will benefit from the use of Cardia Compostable Bubble Wrap. In the case of product spoilage, companies currently separate the perished goods from the traditional bubble wrap and dispose of the items in separate waste streams or discard the packaged product in general waste. Using Cardia Compostable Bubble Wrap companies now have the option to dispose both the perished item and the Cardia Compostable Bubble Wrap packaging without separating them in a green waste stream using industrial composting. This solution offers environmental benefits and systems cost savings. MT www.cardiabioplastics.com Coffee capsules About two years ago, The Ethical Coffee Company SA (Fribourg, Switzerland) had introduced a capsule that can be used with the usual Nespresso machines. In the meantime the alternative capsule is being sold in different supermarket chains in Germany, The Netherlands, France and many other countries to come soon. In contrast to the aluminum, conventionally used for such capsules, the founder of The Ethical Coffee Company Jean-Paul Gaillard decided on a capsule made from biodegradable plastic materials. It is true that aluminum capsules are collected for recycling but in many countries consumers are much less conscientious about collecting them, said the Swiss. The motivation to produce these capsules from bioplastics is only the biodegradability, as Galliard explained to bioplastics MAGAZINE. ”In terms of costs, as well as the manufacturing process, including the coffee filling and other operations, normal plastic or aluminum is both cheaper and easier to handle,“ he said. “So our motivation is only environmentally driven. It was quite a challenge and we are somehow proud to have succeeded. “The Ethical Coffee Company was complimented by a competitor, who stated that they had also tried to use a biodegradable plastic, but could not do it. The material used for the biodegradable capsules is a proprietary blend of PLA mixed with starch, plus the addition of some other natural ingredients to bind the compound. The materials is certified compostable (EN 13432). “We think that our formula is quite ‘advanced’ and also quite different from other bioplastics,” Jean- Paul Gaillard explained … “and this is the reason why we are very careful not to reveal our ingredients.” And Ethical Coffee Company is constantly improving their formula in order to increase the barrier properties against oxygen and to allow for more applications of the material. MT www.ethicalcoffeecompany.com 30 bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/12] Vol. 7
Application News Cycling becomes even greener Cycling isn’t just healthy and fun it’s also one of the key ways for developing sustainable transportation models for our increasingly congested cities filled with noise and atmospheric pollution. ‘Green’ driver airbag modules TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. from Livonia, Michigan, USA, has developed a range of driver airbag modules made of regenerative plastic material, which offers a number of environmental benefits. The Company is the first to develop the new, greener module where components, including the airbag cover and retainer plate, are now made from a new, bio-based material. Manuel Poyant, core engineering manager for driver airbags and steering wheel systems at TRW commented: “TRW is using a new bio-based material for its driver airbag modules which offers significant environmental advantages. Firstly, this material reduces the vehicle‘s ‘interior emissions’ – the gases that are released at low levels from new materials, particularly at high temperature. Reducing such emissions is now a key focus, with leading vehicle manufacturers specifying emissions limits for target compounds released from trim materials. In addition, a significant proportion of the carbon in the new plastic material comes from regenerative raw materials, which helps to save fossil resources.” The airbag cover is a 30% biobased polyester (more details could not be confirmed before going to print). The inflator carrier is made of 2 different bio-polyamides. The PA4.10 is 70% biobased whereas the PA10.10 is made of 99% renewable resources. TRW envisions that the new range of driver airbag modules will be ready for production by mid 2012 and anticipates that the technology could gradually replace all conventional oil based materials in driver airbags in the coming years. MT To make cycling even greener the Portuguese company Polisport has developed a bottle for cyclists which is made from APINAT, a biodegradable plastic made from renewable sources developed by API Spa, Mussolente, Italy. In the case of the biodegradable bottle made by Polisport, APINAT performs like polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP) for use with foodstuffs, but with one unparalleled advantage over traditional polyolefins: it decomposes under controlled composting conditions. Apinat is certified as biodegradable (EN 13432, EN 14995, ASTM D6400). But its environmental credentials go even further as the formula of APINAT used to produce this biodegradable bottle comes from renewable. Polisport has already produced thousands of biodegradable bottles using the extrusion blow moulding process on traditional machines for plastic production without needing to make any changes to their existing equipment. MT www.apinatbio.com www.polisport.com www.trw.com bioplastics MAGAZINE [03/12] Vol. 7 31
