Issue 01/2023

Events Successful EUBP

Events Successful EUBP Conference Bioplastics industry set to engage with political stakeholders on upcoming legislation At the 17 th annual European Bioplastics (EUBP) Conference (6+7 December, Berlin, Germany) industry experts discussed the latest innovations in the bioplastics sector and drove the debate on most recent political developments. These included in particular the European Commission’s first policy framework on innovative bioplastic materials as well as the proposal for a Regulation on Packaging and Packaging Waste (PPWR). Both experts and policymakers agreed that the regulatory environment for bioplastics requires continuous close cooperation between industry and politics. In his opening remarks, Stefan Barot, Chairman of European Bioplastics (EUBP), emphasized the leadership role of the European Union (EU) in addressing the existing environmental challenges. He focused on the EU’s promotion of a circular economy to achieve European climate neutrality by 2050 and the contribution bioplastics can make to achieve this goal. “Bioplastics with their beginning-of-life and endof-life advantages and their special material properties have a lot to offer. The same goes for the industry, an important player in the technical and political debate. However, to use its full potential to support the EU climate objectives and to foster innovation, our industry needs a future-oriented, clear, and transparent economic and regulatory environment”, said Barot. The varied conference programme, which examined key issues along the bioplastics value chain, strongly reinforced his statement. In ten different sessions, over 40 speakers and moderators focused on the contribution that biobased and biodegradable and compostable plastics can make to achieve a circular economy. The conference sessions, amongst other topics, highlighted best practices in food waste collection, showed new directions in bioplastic innovation and gave a global perspective on standardisation. The policy panel further elaborated on the role of especially compostable plastics in the circular economy. Industry and policymakers agreed on the necessity to work closely together in order to establish an adequate environment for bioplastics. In other sessions conference attendees also discussed end-of-life options of biobased and compostable plastics and their benefits. Further topics were recent advances in bioplastic packaging and innovative applications towards sustainability. New European Bioplastics market data, based on research from the nova-Institute (Hürth, Germany), gave a positive outlook for bioplastics production. This year, bioplastics’ leading business and networking platform was held in a hybrid format attracting more than 360 participants. Over 300 participants attended in person, while the other attendees were able to follow the event online. At the conference exhibition, around 30 companies and institutions showcased the high diversity of new products, materials, and applications. Innovation also requires research – thus the conference included a poster exhibition with 14 different universities and research institutes presenting bioplastics-related projects. Global bioplastics production defies challenges by showing significant increase During the conference, European Bioplastics presented a positive outlook for the global bioplastics industry. After a stagnation of overall plastics production in 2020, mainly due to challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, there is now a new momentum for global bioplastics production. The aforementioned research by the nova-Institute’s predicts that production capacity is set to increase significantly from around 2.23 million tonnes in 2022 to approximately 6.3 million tonnes in 2027. “The positive development of bioplastics production capacity needs to be seen within the wider global context of a climate crisis, rising energy costs, and disrupted value chains. Yet, despite these challenges, bioplastics production capacity is growing. Once again, this shows the resilience and importance of our industry”, states Hasso von Pogrell, Managing Director of European Bioplastics (EUBP). 12 bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/23] Vol. 18

and new market data Market Bioplastic alternatives exist for almost every conventional plastic material and corresponding application. Due to a strong development of polymers, such as PHA (Polyhydroxyalkanoates), polylactic acid (PLA), biobased PAs (polyamides) as well as a steady growth of biobased polypropylene (PP), the production capacity will continue to increase significantly and diversify within the next five years. Packaging remains the largest field of application for bioplastics with 48 % (1 million tonnes) of the total bioplastics market in 2022. The data also confirms that bioplastic materials are already being used in many other sectors, and the portfolio of applications continues to diversify. Segments, such as automotive and transport, agriculture and horticulture as well as electrics and electronics will continue to increase moderately in their relative share over the next years. Global production capacities of bioplastics With a view to regional capacity development, Asia remains in its position as major production hub with slightly over 40 % of bioplastics currently being produced in that region. Presently, a fourth of the production capacity is still located in Europe. However, Europe’s share and the share of other world regions are expected to significantly decrease within the next five years. In contrast, Asia is predicted to have passed the 60 % by 2027. “We will see an impressive increase in bioplastics production over the next years. However, the big question is, does Europe still want to play a significant role in the world league of bioplastics or does it give up its leadership in the field of innovative sustainable materials? Investment into infrastructure as well as research requires the right political and economic framework conditions. Therefore, the European policymakers should make use of the many initiatives related to the European Green Deal to clearly acknowledge and promote biobased and compostable plastics”, says von Pogrell. Global production capacities of bioplastics in 2027 by region (regenerated cellulose) The land used to grow the renewable feedstock for the production of bioplastics is estimated to be 0.8 million hectares in 2022 and continues to account for only just over 0.01 % of the global agricultural area of 5 billion hectares. Along with the estimated growth of global bioplastics production in the next five years, the land use share for bioplastics will increase to still below 0.06 %. “In relation to the available agricultural area, this share is still minimal. Thus, there is no competition between the renewable feedstock for food and feed and the production of bioplastics”, says von Pogrell. “Over 90 % of the global agricultural area is used for pasture, feed, and food. This is also of crucial importance in the political debate regarding land used for biobased industries”. MT www.european-bioplastics.org Global production capacities of bioplastics in 2027 by material type Source (3 graphs above) : European Bioplastics, nova-Institute (2022). More information: www.european-bioplastics.org/market and www.bio-based.eu/markets *ln relation to global agricultural area ** including approx. 1 % fallow land, ***Land-use for bioplastics is part of the 2 % material use Land use estimation for bioplastics 2022 and 2027 Source: European Bioplastics (2022), FAO Stats (2020), nova-Institute (2022), and Institute for Bioplastics und Biocomposites (2019), University of Virginia (2016) bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/23] Vol. 18 13