”The Bioplastic Specialist” invites you to stop by booth E48/Hall 6 at K 2013 to see our innovative and fascinating developments. Packaging Film provided by Oerlemans Plastics B.V. Transportation solutions made from renewable resources Terralene ® is our contribution to reduce CO 2 emissions for global transportation. Reusable transportation systems made from plastics are designed to be durable, light and sturdy. In comparison to other packaging materials they also provide an exceptional lifespan of more than ten years. The recyclability contributes to a waste reduction and littering. Beer crate made from Terralene ® Terralene ® adds another advantage to this system: As it is made of the renewable resource sugar cane, it helps capturing CO 2 emissions substantially. For more information, please visit www.fkur.com • www.fkur-biobased.com
Editorial dear readers Every once in a while I’m asked whether conventional polyolefins, when filled with a certain amount of starch, should be considered as bioplastics? Well, the amount of petroleum-based plastics replaced by starch represents significant oil savings… but similar approaches — with the aim of saving costs for the more expensive plastic - have been around in the automotive industry for decades, using wood flour as a cheap, after all, biobased filler. Having said this, how should natural fibre reinforced or filled conventional plastics (including WPC) be considered? I’d like to open up a discussion about this question and I’m looking forward to any kind of comments. For one of our future issues we are planning an article on the question how the term bioplastics has developed over time — what are the most widely agreed definitions…? On the other hand, as you can see from our cover story, bioplastics MAGAZINE is more and more trying to look out of the box or — put another way — to open our scope of topics from pure bioplastics more towards biobased building blocks for bioplastics and other applications, in the sense of green or biobased chemistry. One of the editorial focus topics in this issue is Designers and bioplastics. As this topic is so multifaceted we asked and listened to a number of quite different experts and designers and as a result we got a multifaceted array of statements. But read it yourself. The second highlight is fibre, textiles, nonwovens with interesting articles from PLA fibres, through PHB to fibres and textiles made from waste milk. When you hold this copy in your hands K’2013, the world’s number one trade show, will be almost here. We are looking forward to welcoming you at our booth B10 in hall 7a — a joint booth with the industry association European Bioplastics. And we also would like to see you at the Bioplastics Business Breakfast. As a special service for all K-visitors, we offer a comprehensive preview in this issue, including a show-guide with floor plan in the centre of the magazine. On our website we offer more up to date information as well as planning tools for your visit. For a limited time during and after K’2013, we offer all issues of bioplastics MAGAZINE published in 2013 for reading online at www.issuu.com/bioplastics. For those of you who grabbed a copy of this magazine at K’2013 or another event this is a unique opportunity to have a look into other issues. Further events this coming autumn and winter are certainly the 8 th European Bioplastics Conference on the 10 th and 11 th of December in Berlin where bioplastics MAGAZINE will again present the Global Bioplastics Award. The deadline for submitting proposals has been extended to October 31 st , so there is still enough time send in suggestions for your own or other company’s bioplastics products or services. Please see page 7 for details. As usual this issue is once again rounded off by lots of industry and applications news… We hope you enjoy reading bioplastics MAGAZINE Sincerely yours Michael Thielen Follow us on twitter! www.twitter.com/bioplasticsmag Be our friend on Facebook! www.facebook.com/bioplasticsmagazine bioplastics MAGAZINE [05/13] Vol.8 3
