Application News PLA
Application News PLA jewellery packaging Under the GreenPack umbrella brand, international packaging manufacturer Leser GmbH from Lahr, Germany is offering its new EARTH series, the first jewellery packaging made from 100% PLA. In these times of increased environmental awareness and social responsibility, more and more companies are opting for products made from renewable materials. With the ‘Earth’ series – the world’s first jewellery packaging made from 100% bioplastic – Leser skilfully merges design with sustainability. “The ‘Earth’ series is an important step for our company on the path to sustainable products. We will introduce further product lines under the ‘GreenPack’ umbrella brand, which will live up to the concept of sustainability 100% and without compromise,” says Dietmar Klaus, sales manager at Leser – Packaging and More. The ‘Earth’ series is offered in five standard sizes in the colours white, black, blue and green. Special sizes, colours and designs are also possible upon request. ‘Earth’ therefore offers packaging solutions for a wide variety of products from fields such as cosmetics, personal care products, writing utensils, accessories, optics, electronics and many more. MT www.leser.de Youtube: http://bit.ly/PCE74H New trekking pole API S.p.A., Mussolente, Italy recently presented a new trekking pole with a biodegradable grip produced in collaboration with Fizan, Rosà, Italy, a leading producer of ski and trekking poles that has always maintained a commitment to using sustainable materials in their manufacturing processes. This trekking pole is only the most recent in a long series of products made using APINAT, the series of 100% biodegradable thermoplastic polymers (according to European Standard EN 13432) made by API Spa using up to 40% of renewable raw materials. The excellent rheological properties of APINAT mean that grips can be injected moulded in thicknesses up to 5 mm without the need for any further action on the moulds, while reducing cylinder temperatures by 30°C providing considerable energy savings. This, together with APINAT’s significant crystallisation features, means that moulding cycle times can be reduced without compromising the quality of the finished product. From a purely functional standpoint the intrinsic polarity of APINAT means that it adheres extremely well to the metal surface of the pole and also has excellent resistance to atmospheric conditions and sweat, providing the same level of performance as the thermoplastics traditionally used for this type of application. Lorenzo Brunetti, Vice President of API, explained that as well as the technical challenges of the application, API has made a conscious decision to produce sporting goods for outdoor use that respect the environment, something that lovers of trekking are concerned about. “We wanted to provide these people with something extra, some firsthand experience to help them appreciate not only the technical and functional value of these new biodegradable polymers but also to generate an increased awareness of the environmental benefits that these products produce.” MT www.apinatbio.com 34 bioplastics MAGAZINE [04/12] Vol. 7
First Bioplastic Ultimate Frisbee While most of us know frisbees as toys or leisure goods used by adolescents in parks, for many others these flying discs have a place in serious kinds of sports, i.e. Ultimate, Freestyle, Discgolf and Disc-Dogging. New Games – Frisbeesport from Deggen hausertal in Germany is a supplier of high quality frisbees for both the leisure area (including promotional giveaways) and for the serious sports sector. In search of some alternative materials in an effort to get away from petroleum based plastics Thomas Napieralski, Managing Director of the company New Games, tried several different bioplastics. Now they can for example offer frisbees for Discgolf made of a Bioflex grade, by FKuR (Willich, Germany), with about 35% renewable content. “Even if discgolfers always try to find and recover their wayward flying saucers, it’s good to know that the discs will eventually completely biodegrade even if they are completely lost”, says Thomas Napieralski. For Ultimate sport, New Games together with Tecnaro (Ilsfeld-Auenstein, Germany) over a period of three years developed Eurodisc, a very precise 175 gram sport frisbee made from a special grade of Arboblend. This material is made from 96% renewable resources. “The new Ultimate frisbee can be injection-moulded in our new Eurodisc II mould and it has excellent aerodynamic qualities over more than 100 metres”, Napieralski proudly explains. For the end of life New Games do not suggest disposing of the frisbees in a composting bin but rather using the yellow bin (in Germany) or the grey residual waste bins. As long as there are no recycling schemes for these bioplastics at least in some countries such as Germany they will end up in waste-to-energy incineration where they represent a source of ‘renewable energy’. For the leisure and giveaway sector, New Games is already looking for new biobased solutions. MT www.frisbeeshop.com C M Y CM MY CY CMY K th www.bio-based.eu www.biowerkstoff-kongress.de Int. Congress 2013 6on Industrial Biotechnology and Bio-based Plastics & Composites April 10 th – 11 th 2013, Maternushaus, Cologne, Germany Highlights from the world wide leading countries in bio-based economy: USA & Germany Organiser Partner ARBEIT UMWELT S T I F T U N G DER IG BERGBAU, CHEMIE, ENERGIE magnetic_148,5x105.ai 175.00 lpi 15.00° 75.00° 0.00° 45.00° 14.03.2009 10:13:31 www.nova-institute.eu Prozess CyanProzess www.arbeit-umwelt.de MagentaProzess GelbProzess www.kunststoffl Schwarz and-nrw.de UND Magnetic www.plasticker.com for Plastics • International Trade in Raw Materials, Machinery & Products Free of Charge • Daily News from the Industrial Sector and the Plastics Markets • Current Market Prices for Plastics. • Buyer’s Guide for Plastics & Additives, Machinery & Equipment, Subcontractors and Services. • Job Market for Specialists and Executive Staff in the Plastics Industry Up-to-date • Fast • Professional bioplastics MAGAZINE [04/12] Vol. 7 35
