Bottle Applications
Bottle Applications (Photo: Planet Pure) Bottles made from Bio-Polyethylene Bio-Polyethylene (or bio-PE) was introduced under the brand name Green PE and first produced on a commercial scale in September 2010 by the Brazilian company Braskem. Bio-PE is derived from sugar-cane-based bioethanol and has a very positive environmental balance because, taking into account the complete supply chain, it removes up to 2.5 tonnes of CO 2 from the atmosphere for each tonne produced. Used for many different applications such as films for bags etc and injection moulded parts, bio-PE is now also increasingly being used for extrusion-blow-moulded bottle applications. One of the first applications was a hair-care bottle for the Procter & Gambles Panthene series (see bM 5/2010). (Photo: Takeda) Pharmaceutical bottles The Japanese Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (headquartered in Osaka) have now announced that they will start using bio-polyethylene bottles as the primary packaging container for their hypertension treatment product, Azilva ® (500 tablets, bulk packaging). A primary packaging component is one that is in direct contact with the pharmaceutical products. Takeda’s bio-PE bottles have been tested for critical functionalities such as moisture permeability and shock resistance, as well as their potential impact on the quality of tablets. The results confirmed that they are functionally comparable to conventional polyethylene bottles, and have no impact upon the quality of tablets. “Takeda is the first company to use bio-PE bottles as the primary packaging for pharmaceutical products in Japan,” said James Morley, Ph.D., General Manager of the Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls Center at Takeda. “We believe it is an 32 bioplastics MAGAZINE [04/13] Vol. 8
Bottle Applications important responsibility always to consider the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and we will continue to promote our environmental efforts.” “I am very pleased to supply pharmaceutical products in bio-PE bottles in the Japanese market, as these bottles ensure the equivalent quality of the products as compared to the bottles made from conventional materials, and at the same time using the environmentally-friendly materials,” said Tetsuo Miwa, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of the Pharmaceutical Production Division at Takeda. “The feasibility study covering the use of bio-PE bottles for other existing Takeda products is on-going, with the aim to further contributing to environmental conservation.” Bottles for general purpose cleaner In Germany Green PE is for example now being used by Kärcher, the world‘s leading provider of cleaning systems, cleaning products and services. The first Kärcher product using bio-PE is a 1-litre bottle for Kärcher’s general purpose cleaner eco!ogic, introduced to the market in January 2013. This is a cleaner for pressure washers for private or home use which is made exclusively from surfactants produced from renewable resources. “For us it was important to supply our eco!ogic cleaner in a particularly environmentallyfriendly bottle”, as Verena Schweizer, press officer at Kärcher, told bioplastics MAGAZINE. Kärcher was looking for a holistic concept for the eco!ogic series of pressure washers. The company chose biobased polyethylene, because this material is resistant to chemicals (cleaners), offers the same properties as traditional PE and can be processed on existing equipment. The cleaner is sold globally. Custom blow moulders Some custom blow-moulders that bioplastics MAGAZINE spoke to in Germany confirmed that the interest from the market is really huge, however, a lot of potential customers for such bottles still hesitate because of cost issues or a lack of information on a potential competition with food resources (please see pages 43 to read more about this topic). Generally all custom blow-moulders confirmed that bio-PE is easily processable on existing extrusion-blow-moulding equipment, even for larger containers such as 5 litre canisters. Detergent bottles One of these custom blow-moulding companies from Germany is Siepe GmbH of Kerpen. The company supplies bio-PE bottles to the Austrian enviropreneur Silvio Perpmer, who founded his company PLANET PURE in 1999 with the aim of creating healthy and sustainable cleaning products and detergents. Planet Pure, headquartered in Hörbranz, Austria, has a deep understanding of natural resources, and also understands that everything is connected to everything else. The company lives the natural cycle and uses purely organically grown raw materials. The majority come from smaller farms, cooperatives and fair-organic farming. Thus it was only a logical consequence for Silvio to look for a green packaging made from renewable resources, as he explained to bioplastics MAGAZINE. He decided in favour of Green PE because for him it is important “to have a bottle material that you can squeeze a certain number of times without it looking crinkled”. Silvio Perpmer started with a smaller bottle for dishwashing detergent but he will certainly convert his other bottles to bio-PE. Even if Green PE is still more expensive than traditional material, Planet Pure will not increase the sales prices of their products, says Silvio. Since 2011 Braskem’s Green PE has been distributed exclusively by FKuR Kunststoff GmbH in Europe. In addition the companies recently announced the expansion of their distribution agreement for Green PE to cover USA and Canada. Furthermore FKuR broadens the range of applications for Green PE by offering tailor made compounds under the brand name Terralene ® . MT www.takeda.com www.kaercher.com www.planetpure.com www.fkur.com www.braskem.com (Photo: Kärcher) bioplastics MAGAZINE [04/13] Vol. 8 33
