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Biodegradable Disposable Materials, What have been the major challenges to commercialize them?
I would like to hear from people with experience in commercializing biodegradable disposable materials, such as disposable plates, food packages, glasses, forks, etc.
Most interested in understanding the major challenges to commercialize them and the opportunities you see ahead for these type of products.
Answers (7)
I can only speak as potential user of disposable, non-petroleum-based thermoplastic. It's really hard to purchase samples of the stuff, really hard to get any kind of useful information and often times, despite the pretty websites and slick marketing, many products are in the "pipeline" or not actually available.
This IDs at least one problem with the materials you speak of.
Furthermore as a buyer, it is hard to find appropriate grades, hard to convince clients to switch and the price (if you can actually get that info) tends to be a killer also.
Y.
The technology of current starch based product for injection molded is poor, brittle etc. but is used by a number of companie focused on food service sales but not to commercial retail. The first products you can see that are at retail are starch based products such as BioBags, which are on market in some places. There are 5 or 6 major makers of this resin but only one in US, the others are European and also a few in Asia. If you are looking at hard injection molded products the future is FHBV. You can see that material being used in EcoGen products from Design ideas. These products will be available shortly at retail. They are unique in that they are biodegradeable and compostable and all meet ASTM and BPI standards. Need more info? I have been at this a while.
One of the biggest issues posed against the widespread manufacture and use of "green" plastics is the fact that they are still in their infancy regarding development. Standard petro-chemical based plastics (PE, PS, PET) have been around for quite a long time (a century or more) whereas green plastics, such as Polylactic Acid, have maybe a 20 year history. The infrastructure for making the resin is small and specialized. Plus the applications are not completely conducive to widespread use.
Polylactic acid has a high decomposition rate, which makes it ideal from a biodegradability standpoint, but it also means a very short shelf-life for your product. As far as I know, packaging applications for PLA are limited to films for perishable meats in the deli dept.
One very exciting opportunity I have heard of for biodegradable plastics, while not in the realm of packaging, is quite fascinating. Combining a biodegradable resin with a non biodegradable resin and injection molding replacement parts for human joints seems like a great application. After time, the body naturally breaks down the green plastic, leaving a "swiss cheese" matrix of the non-biodegradable plastic. New human tissue then grows, not only around, but through the new joint allowing for exponentially stronger reconstructed joints.
One of the main challenges in the biodegradable industry is misinterpretation and misrepresentation by others. Whilst in their infancy compared to petroleum-based plastics, there are a number of applications that are suitable for bioplastics, not just film and BioBag applications.
Stanelco, through our daughter company, Biotec, manufacture and commericalise a sustainable range of products capable of replacing oil-based plastics. Derived from natural corn and potato starch, our polymers make functional, long-life plastic products adhere to both Din Certco (EN13432) and ASTM standards. Our products are suitable for film, sheet and injection moulding applications, including disposable cutlery & crockery.
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Liam S
Business Research Fellow at Sheffield's Polymer Centre and Technical Consultant at FaraPack Polymers
Surely the key point is that biodegradability lies relatively low in most specifiers' priorities and that, as a rule of thumb, introducing the capability to decompose into a plastic is correlated with poorer mechanical and processing properties and higher price - i.e. contradicting the specifiers' high priorities. Either suppliers have to create better performing, lower priced materials that happen to be biodegradable (as one colleague at Sheffield is investigating), or their customers have to start demanding biodegradability more frequently.
What would drive specifiers to prioritise biodegradability higher? The green movement (for want of a better term) has opened niches for plastics labelled as compostable, etc, but you have to be in the know to understand the labelling and value the product. When you do finally throw it away, there is no infrastructure (at least in the UK) to separate the compostable plastic like PLA from the standard stuff - so the compostability is rarely (never?) actually exploited. So why would significant numbers of specifiers' customers want compostability?
Perhaps tying in a second function to the plastic is a way forward. On a conceptual level, another colleague at Sheffield is doing that with bottles for, say, basil-scented fabric conditioner made from clay-filled PVA. PVA doesn't dissolve in high salt water, so it's a good container for the fabric conditioner. When it's emptied, you can dissolve the bottle in boiling water
and, on cooling, the clay filler knits the polymer into a gel. The bottle cap contains a little compartment for micronutrients and plant seeds, so you can shake these into your bottle-gel to use the bottle, which originally contained basil-scented homecare product, as a medium in which to grow fresh basil for your kitchen.
Happy to discuss further if you want to hook up.
Best wishes,
Liam
JoAnn H
Consumer Product Packaging And Branding Consultant
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Miguel:
One major challenge is misinformation and misleading claims. A second challenge is do consumers really care? They speak the talk as evidence by Nielsen recent study but when it comes to pocketbook issues it's a different story.
With every company touting is own environmentally friendly message its almost impossible for a consumer top separate fact from fiction. Its so confusing the FTC is getting into the act.
Just because its "green" doesn't mean it will sell the consumer who ultimately will be the decision maker how far this environmental movement will go and how viable biodegradable commercialization will be.
JoAnn Hines
Packaging Diva
All Packaging All Of The Time
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Bill S
Vice President /General Manager Shippers Warehouse & Managing Dir. for Atlanta Supply Chain Inc. 5000+ Connections
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Dear Miguel:
The primary challenge facing the food industry in producing bioplastic packaging, currently, is to match the durability of the packaging with product shelf-life. Alone or working in combination, environmental temperature, relative humidity, presence of active bacterial
and spoilage microorganisms, ultraviolet exposure, etc. are the usual modes of degradation in food quality and spoilage.
These factors that cause deterioration of the food product are
also factors that influence the rate of degradation of the bioplastic material, and special care must be taken to develop bioplastic materials which address these concerns. More importantly, processes must be developed such that innovative developments in the properties of bioplastics materials can be implemented for industrial-scale applications.
Best Regards,
Bill Stankiewicz
Vice President and General Manager
Shippers Warehouse of Georgia
Office: 678-364-3475
Williams@shipperswarehouse.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/billstankiewicz2006
Sustainable Consumer Packaged Goods member
CPG Branding and Forum Member