Spirits maker Bacardi (Hamilton / Bermuda) has unveiled plans to create a bottle that can biodegrade in 18 months, and its signature rum is expected to be the first product to appear in the new bottle in a rollout scheduled for 2023.

The company said it expects to introduce the new bottles as replacements for single-use plastics across its entire supply chain and the rest of its 200 brands, which include Bombay Sapphire gin, Grey Goose vodka, Patrón tequila, Martini vermouth and Dewar’s Scotch whisky. The goal is to remove around 80m bottles – 3,000 t of plastics – currently used annually across its portfolio of brands.

Bacardi collaborated with biodegradable products developer Danimer Scientific (Bainbridge, Georgia / USA) and uses the US company’s “Nodax” polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), a biopolymer made from the oils of plant seeds such as palm, canola and soy. Nodax is said to biodegrade to 100% in various environments including compost, soil, freshwater and seawater.

The Bermudian company said it is also creating a sustainably sourced paper bottle by integrating Nodax PHA in its design. Developers are also currently attempting to address the issue of plastic lining for bottle closures.

Source: Plasteurope.com

Danimer Scientific, a leading developer and manufacturer of biodegradable materials, and Eagle Beverage Products, a specialty beverage manufacture, announced they will product biodegradable drinking straws for the quick service restaurant (QSR) industry.

Eagle Beverage will manufacture the straws using Danimer Scientific’s proprietary biopolymer, Nodax™ polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA). Tested by University of Georgia (UGA) researchers and the UGA New Materials Institute, PHA is made from sustainable materials, such as canola oil, to produce a proven biodegradable alternative to traditional petrochemical plastics. The straws will degrade in environments ranging from industrial composting facilities to home compost units and oceans without leaving behind microplastics.

The straws are expected to be available for Eagle Beverage’s QSR customers to purchase in early 2021. After launching the straws, Eagle Beverage plans to explore expanding its offerings to include compostable food containers, packaging and more.

Eagle Beverage Vice President Aisha Kabani said “By partnering with Danimer Scientific to produce a reliably biodegradable straw, we will provide a cost-effective solution for restaurants to deliver guilt-free beverage enjoyment to their customers. Petrochemical straws break down into harmful microplastics and never fully degrade, but these PHA straws will completely degrade in a matter of months.”

Source: Bioplasticmagazine

LG Chem has successfully developed a new biodegradable material potentially with mechanical properties and transparency equivalent to synthetic resins such as PP, the company announced October 19.

The new material offers significantly improved flexibility (elongation) and transparency compared to existing biodegradable materials. This has been achieved through proprietary technologies and production processes.

LG Chem’s new bioplastic is a single biodegradable, 100% biobased material derived from corn-based glucose and crude glycerol.

Existing biodegradable materials require other plastic materials or additives to be mixed in, in order to obtain the desired properties and flexibility, but the new biodegradable material developed by LG Chem is a homogenous unimaterial.

In particular, flexibility, which is a core factor, was improved by more than 20 times compared to existing biodegradable products, thus making it possible to maintain transparency even after processing. A ripple effect is expected in the eco-friendly packaging industry, where biodegradable materials commonly find application.

Existing biodegradable materials have been used as non-transparent packaging material products due to the nature of mixed materials.

In addition, as global disposable product usage regulations are becoming stricter throughout the European Union and elsewhere around the globe, demand for biodegradable materials is likely to grow for use in applications such as plastic bags, air cap buffers, disposable cups, foaming products and mask felts, and the like.
According to a market survey firm, the biodegradable materials market is expected to grow by 15% a year from 4.2 trillion KRW in 2019 to 9.7 trillion KRW in 2025.

LG Chem recently received confirmation from the German biodegradable materials international certification agency ‘DIN CERTCO that the new material met the industrial biodegradable European certification standards. According to the agency, over 90% of the newly developed biodegradable material decomposed within 120 days.

Source: bioplasticsmagazine

The Australian national science agency, CSIRO (Hobart; www.csrio.au) has unveiled what it calls the first global estimate for the amount of microplastics – pieces less than 5mm in diameter – on the seafloor. The whopping 14 million tons of refuse “is more than double the amount of plastic pollution estimated to be on the ocean’s surface,” the agency said.

The study adds to the knowledge about the amount of plastics pollution in the oceans and the impact of plastic items, both large and small, according to CSIRO’s Justine Barret, who led the research “Plastic pollution that ends up in the ocean deteriorates and breaks down, ending up as microplastics”. The estimate for the total amount of microplastics on the world’s seafloor was based on samples collected using a robotic submarine in depths to 3000m at sites up to 380km offshore from South Australia, according to the agency, which noted that the amount of microplastics recorded was 25 times higher than previous deep-sea studies.

Denise Hardesty, the study’s co-author shared “Deep ocean is a sink for microplastics”. The number of microplastic fragments on the seafloor was generally higher in areas where there was also more floating rubbish, CSIRO noted.

Focusing on the Atlantic Ocean, the UK National Oceanography Centre) in August 2020 published a similar study on microplastics in the marine environment. The NOC researchers estimate the amount of polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene microplastics alone in the Atlantic Ocean could be about 200 million tons

Source: Plasteurope.com

On October 20 2020, New York is finally enforcing its statewide ban on single-use plastic bags. The law actually went into effect last winter, but the pandemic and a lawsuit from plastic bag manufacturers delayed enforcement for months. Now, shops must avoid these bags or face fines up to $500.

Plastic bags won’t completely vanish due to this law, but it will certainly be harder to find the once-everyday objects. Here’s what else you need to know:

The Bag Waste Reduction Law passed after the Democrats took control of both houses of the Legislature in 2019, was part of an effort to curb litter and minimize greenhouse emissions caused by plastic bag production. By one estimate, New Yorkers were using about 23 billion plastic bags each year, 85% of which ended up in landfills, recycling machines (although they are not recyclable in most machines), waterways and streets.

New York was the second state to agree to impose such a ban, after California. At least six other states followed suit, including Vermont and Connecticut. New Jersey last month passed a bill to ban both plastic and paper single-use bags.

There are also exceptions to the ban: restaurants can still give out single-use plastic bags for takeout. Stores can use them for items including uncooked meat, sliced or prepared food, and prescription drugs. Newspaper bags, garment bags and bags sold in bulk, such as trash or recycling bags, are also exempt from the rule.

If you don’t take a reusable bag to a store, paper bags will likely be available for a 5-cent fee. The revenue from that fee will go to the state’s Environmental Protection Fund and programs that distribute reusable bags.

Source: The New York Times

Avery Dennison Fastener Solutions – a global provider of plastic fastening solutions and systems for the automotive, apparel, retail, consumer packaging and other industries, has launched the Ecotach bio-PP tag fastener which completely degrades within one year once it is in soil without leaving behind microplastics or other substances into environment.

Mr. Dan Riendeau, Senior Marketing Manager, Global Packaging and Retail, Avery Dennison Fastener Solutions explained “Plastic fasteners, which attach price tags and other product information to garments, are on 90% of the approximately 80 billion garments manufactured each year. That adds up to a whole lot of plastic – equivalent to the amount of plastic found in 761,581,156 single-serve, half-liter PET water bottles. Brand owners and retailers increasingly are seeking ways to reduce their environmental footprint, and this product innovation helps to do that.

As a materials science innovator, we’re excited to grow this product line and offer our customers more options and a solution that is not dependent on consumer recycling behaviors,”

A regular polypropylene fastener can take anywhere from 20 to 30 years to break down and, depending on environmental conditions while also leaving behind microplastics. In contrast, the new bio-PP fastener is made out of a proprietary blend of polypropylene designed to biodegrade in less than a year in soil without leaving any microplastics.

“With these new technologies, we’re able to offer brands a sustainable solution that removes single-use plastic” said Riendeau.

The product and its environmental performance have been verified by Impact Solutions, an independent plastics expert with more than 100 years of combined experience in plastics, failure analysis, and product development.

Source: plasticstoday

Corbion and Total have announced their intention to build a new PLA bioplastics plant in Europe through their Total Corbion PLA joint venture. The first world-scale PLA production facility in Europe is expected to have a capacity of 100,000 tons per year.

“PLA is increasingly finding its place as a bioplastic, enabling acceleration toward a circular economy.,” said Olivier Rigaud, Corbion CEO – In our recently released Advance 2025 strategy, one of our goals, together with Total, is to become the market leader in PLA. This new plant puts us firmly on track to achieve that goal.”

Bernard Pinatel, President, Refining & Chemicals, Total, commented: “We are very pleased to announce this second PLA plant project located in Grandpuits, France, on Total’s new zero-petrol platform, strengthening our successful partnership with Corbion. This is fully in line with Total’s strategy to innovate and grow in circular-economy solutions. Bioplastics are a great complement to meet the rising demand for polymers while contributing toward reducing end-of-life concerns,” said Pinatel.

Plant construction is expected to require approximately €200 million ($233 million) in capital expenditures. Earlier this year, Corbion announced it will build a new lactic acid plant with the latest low-emission technology in Thailand. It is expected to be operational in 2023.

Source: plastictoday