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News daily updated News at www.bioplasticsmagazine.com Chemically recycled PLA now available Total Corbion PLA (Gorinchem, The Netherlands) has launched the world’s first commercially available chemically recycled bioplastics product. The Luminy ® recycled PLA grades boast the same properties, characteristics and regulatory approvals as virgin Luminy PLA, but are partially made from post-industrial and post-consumer PLA waste. Total Corbion PLA is already receiving and depolymerizing reprocessed PLA waste, which is then purified and polymerized back into commercially available Luminy rPLA. The commercial availability of recycled PLA (rPLA) offers brand owners the opportunity to make products from rPLA, with the luxury of having original food contact and other certifications in place. Using rPLA can contribute to meeting the recycled content targets of brand owners. Thomas Philipon, CEO at Total Corbion PLA, sees this as a logical step towards an even more sustainable offering: “Our company’s vision is to create a better world for today and generations to come. This ability to now efficiently receive, repurpose and resupply PLA is a further demonstration of the sustainability of our product and the demonstration of our commitment to enable the circular economy through value chain partnership.” François de Bie, Senior Marketing Director at Total Corbion PLA is proud to launch this new product line of Luminy PLA and encourages interested parties to get in touch: “The ability to chemically recycle post-industrial and post-consumer PLA waste allows us to not only reduce waste but also keep valuable resources in use and truly ‘close the loop’. For our customers, the new, additional end-of-life avenue this provides could be the missing piece in their own sustainability puzzle, and we look forward to solving these challenges together.” As an initial offering, grades will be supplied with 20 % recycled content using the widely accepted principles of mass balance. “As we are currently ramping up this initiative, the initial volumes are limited but we are confident that rPLA will grow to be a significant part of our overall sales revenues” states de Bie. Currently, Looplife in Belgium and Sansu in Korea are among the first active partners that support collecting, sorting and cleaning of post-industrial and post-consumer PLA waste. The resulting PLA feedstock is then used by Total Corbion PLA to make new Luminy PLA polymers via the chemical recycling process. Total Corbion PLA is actively looking for additional partners from around the world that will help to close the loop. We invite interested parties to contact their local sales representative. Total Corbion PLA expects that the growing demand for rPLA will also boost the collecting, sorting and reprocessing of post-use PLA for both mechanical and chemical recycling, as de Bie explains further: “At Total Corbion PLA, we are actively seeking to purchase more post-industrial and post-consumer PLA waste, creating value for the recycle industry as a whole.”MT www.total-corbion.com Kolon and Origin to codevelop and commercialise PEF Carbon negative materials company Origin Materials (West Sacramento, California, USA) and Kolon Industries (Seoul, South Korea) recently announced a strategic partnership to industrialize novel polymers and drop-in solutions for select applications, with an initial focus on automotive applications. This strategic partnership aims to rapidly develop and industrialize new sustainable carbon-negative products based on Origin Materials’ patented technology platform, leveraging Kolon’s polymerization expertise, application development and supply chain strength. As part of the partnership, Kolon signed a multi-year capacity reservation agreement to purchase sustainable carbonnegative materials from Origin Materials. The partnership includes co-development aimed at commercializing polyethylene furanoate, or PEF, a polymer with an attractive combination of performance characteristics for packaging and other applications, including enhanced barrier properties when compared with PET, and other qualities. Origin Materials’ technology platform is expected to produce cost-competitive, sustainable, carbon-negative furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), the primary precursor to PEF. Kolon Industries’ polymer expertise in novel FDCA-based polymers, including PEF, is expected to introduce world-class carbon-negative polymers and chemistries. “Origin is a pioneer and a global leader in carbon negative chemical technology, and Kolon Industries is a world leader in chemicals and polymers,” said Sung Han, Chief Technology Officer of Kolon Group. “Therefore, the collaboration between these two companies will ensure both carbon-negative and cost-effective Sustainable Polymer Economy, which will further enable the realization of the Circular Economy.” Origin Materials has developed a platform for turning the carbon found in inexpensive, plentiful, non-food biomass such as sustainable wood residues into useful materials while capturing carbon in the process. Origin’s patented technology platform can help revolutionize the production of a wide range of end products. In addition, Origin’s technology platform is expected to provide stable pricing largely decoupled from the petroleum supply chain, which is exposed to more volatility than supply chains based on sustainable wood residues. Founded in 1957, Kolon Industries is an innovative chemical and material company. The company has over 60 years of experience in polyester polymerization and its application technology including fibre, film, and others. Kolon Industries’ experience and proven success in cutting-edge polymer commercialization are expected to secure novel biobased polymers. MT www.kolonindustries.com | www.originmaterials.com 6 bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/21] Vol. 16
First straw bans begin to topple While well-intended, many straw bans inadvertently prohibit the use of emerging alternatives to petroleum plastic and require the use of paper straws. Since this wave of bans began, new, sustainable solutions have emerged into the marketplace, while questions have been raised about paper straws’ impact on human health and the environment (e.g., many paper straws contain PFAS, also known as the "forever chemical"). WinCup (Stone Mountain, Georgia, USA) applauds the community of Fort Myers Beach (California, USA) decision to update its plastic straw ban ordinance to allow for marine biodegradable bioplastic straws. The new ordinance strengthens the city’s previous policy, which banned the use of any type of straw other than paper straws. New marine biodegradable technologies that have emerged since the passage of the initial policy in 2017, including WinCup’s polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) phade ® straw, made with Nodax ® -based resins from Danimer Scientific (Bainbridge, Georgia, USA), are now able to be distributed in the community and achieve the city’s goal of protecting the area’s beaches and waterways. “We commend Fort Myers Beach for its leadership and demonstrating the community’s commitment to meaningfully address plastic pollution by strengthening its straw ban to allow for groundbreaking marine biodegradable solutions like phade PHA straws,” said WinCup CEO Brad Laporte. “Straw bans are being enacted across the country that, while well-meaning, ultimately limit the positive impacts that emerging technologies designed to replace traditional plastic can bring. Innovative bioplastics must be a part of the movement away from petroleum-based plastics. Our hope is that communities across the country will follow Fort Myers Beach’s lead by ensuring their straw ban policies are as strong as possible by allowing ecologically superior alternatives to petro plastic, like PHA.” The update to the Fort Myers Beach straw ban comes as communities and governments worldwide look for sustainable solutions to combat plastic pollution. With the Town Council’s vote, Fort Myers Beach provides a model for other policy makers to modernize straw bans that prohibit non-paper, sustainable alternatives to traditional plastic. The Global Organisation for PHA (GO!PHA, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) also welcomes this move. “This is a great first step in the right direction and highlights the solution that PHA can provide in our joint mission to end plastics pollution”, said Rick Passenier, Executive Board Member of GO!PHA. “Communities and governments around the globe should consider similar corrective moves that should also be expanded to other, if not all SUP bans.” MT News daily updated News at www.bioplasticsmagazine.com www.wincup.com | www.phadeproducts.com | www.gopha.org Polyamide 6 from 92 % sustainable raw materials LANXESS (Cologne, Germany) recently introduced its new brand extension, called “Scopeblue”. The first product in this new line is Durethan BLUEBKV60H2.0EF. 92 % of the raw materials used in this easy-flowing PA 6 compound have been replaced with sustainable alternatives – that’s more than in any other prime quality glass-fibre-reinforced plastic. The new brand label identifies products that either consist of at least 50 % circular (recycled or biobased) raw materials, or whose carbon footprint is at least 50 % lower than that of conventional products. One of the raw materials used in the production of this PA 6 based highperformance plastic is cyclohexane from sustainable sources – meaning cyclohexane that is either biobased, recycled biobased or produced by means of chemical recycling. The material is also strengthened with 60 % by weight of glass fibres comprising industrial glass waste instead of mineral raw materials. The alternative raw materials that Lanxessuses in the precursors for polyamide 6 are chemically identical to their equivalents of fossil origin (drop-in solutions), so Durethan BLUEBKV60H2.0EF exhibits the same characteristics as the virgin material and can be processed just as easily using exactly the same production tools and facilities with no conversion work needed. But developers are setting their sights on more than 92 % sustainable raw materials. “We’re currently working on increasing the content of sustainable raw materials in this compound to 100 %,” says Günter Margraf, Head of Global Management at Lanxess’ High performance Materials division (HPM). This requires ammonia synthesized with carbon-neutral hydrogen. Over the medium term, the specialty chemicals company is also planning to replace the additives used in its plastics with sustainable equivalents. In mid-November, Lanxess announced they will transfer its HPM business unit to an independent legal corporate structure. MT www.lanxess.com bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/21] Vol. 16 7
