1. Bio-plastics in Packaging; Innovations,
Opportunities and Challenges
Dr Roya Khalil
Australian Institute of Packaging Conference, 14-15 June 2012

2. Summary
 Background
 Terminology
 Test standards & certifications
 Innovations & applications
 Global capacity & prediction demand
 Challenges
- Communication & Marketing
- Disposal

3. Definition of Sustainability
Sustainability is simply stated as:
“meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs."
World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, Our Common Future
Sustainable strategy defined with +R
 Reduce
 Reuse
 Recycle
 Renewable

4. Sustainability and Packaging
Packaging industry, the sustainability focal point
and primary benchmark for other industries
- Resource intensive sector in an increasingly
resource constrained world
- Increased volume of packaging waste ending up
in landfills
Challenge can also be an opportunity to gain
competitive advantage through the development
of an environmentally sustainable strategy
- An option could be the use of bio-plastics

5. Terminology and Measurements
 Bio-based (renewable soured) - Focus is on the origin of the carbon building block
- To be classified bio-based, material must be organic and contain some percentage of recently fixed
(new) carbon found in biological resources or crops
 Biodegradable - Focus is on the end of life
- To be classified biodegradable, a certain % of the material must convert to carbon dioxide, water and
biomass via microbial assimilation within a time period of 180 days and less than 10 % of test material
remains on a 2mm sieve
- To be classified compostable, material must meet the biodegradation criteria and leave no impact on
plants, using OECD Guide 208 and meet the regulation (heavy metals less than 50 % of EPA
prescribed threshold)
The two classes however are not mutually exclusive.

6. How to identify and distinguish
bio-based or biodegradable?
- Accredited testing
laboratories
- Certified by industry
approved corporation
Standards &
Certifications

7. Raw Material
Extraction
Material
Processing
Part
Manufacturing
Product Use
End of life
Life Cycle
Assessment
‘’Cradle to Grave‘’
How “Green” is Green?
Transport
Quantitative and qualitative
impact measure
 LCA - ISO 14040
 Eco Profiling
 PIQET

8. Packaging Innovations (Rigids)

9. bio-plastics – Packaging Innovations- flexiblesPackaging Innovations (Flexibles)

10. Legislative Initiatives
 Japan
Government has set a goal that 20% of all plastics consumed in Japan will be renewably sourced by 2020
 Germany
Germany banned on land filling solid waste with over 5% organic content
Biodegradable plastics exempt from the recycling directive until 2012 attributes to savings of 1.3 €/kg in
favour of compostable bio-plastics
 Netherlands
Netherlands is Implementing a 40 € cents/kg tax on PET vs. tax on PLA of 8 € cents/kg
 USA
USA Federal Farm Bill - Energy Title 9, each federal agency must design a plan to purchase as many bio-
based plastics as practically possible, procurement plan will be based on bio-based content, price and
performance

11. Global Capacity & Market Demand
 Global demand to triple to
over 1m tonnes by 2015
 Demand for bio-based
plastics will be the primary
driver due to increased
commercial volume of bio-
based PE
 Consumer preferences for
environmentally sustainable
materials
 Improved performance of
bio-plastics when compared
with traditional plastics

12. Leading Manufacturers
 Braskem - Green PE (www.braskem.com.br)
 Natureworks – Ingeo® (www.natureworksllc.com)
 Purac – PURALACT® (www.purac.com)
 BASF – Ecovio® and Ecoflex® (http://www.bioplastics.basf.com)
 Novamont – Mater-bi® (www.novamont.com)
 Innovia films – Cellophanes™ & Natureflex™ (www.innoviafilms.com)
 Cereplast – Cereplast Compostables® & Cereplast Sustainable® (www.cereplast.com)
 Plantic – HP1 ® and R® & Plantic eco Plastic™ (www.plantic.com.au)
 Becasewecare – becausewecare™ (www.becausewecare.com.au)
 Alesco - Bioshrink® (www.alesco.net)
 Dow & Mitsui Chemicals – Green Plastics, PET & PP (www.dow.com)

13. Gap between consumers' ethical attitude and
purchasing decisions concerning environmentally
friendly products is important to the packaging
industry, driven by:
 Lack of communication and understanding of
sustainability
 Vague & misleading marketing and the
abundance of "green-washed" products
 Misconception of increased cost and inferior
performance
 “Recycling” remains widely accepted
Rightful Marketing and Consumer Communication

14. Packaging Waste Management
% Recycled % Land filled/ Disposed % Incineration % Energy Recovered
USA 12 54 - -
EUROPE 40 50 5 5
AUS 38 40 1 -
 Up to 40% of plastics used is recycled
 Recycling infrastructure mainly to collect beverage and milk bottles
 Minimal infrastructure available for biodegradable plastics
 Majority of packaging waste continue to be disposed in landfill

15. Lack of Bio-plastics Disposal Infrastructure
EU (2008)

16. Bio-plastics & Current Disposal Routes
 Recycling – Contamination
- Bio-based PET, PE & PP
 Landfill - Solid Waste and GHG
- Methanisation plan excluded
 Incineration - lower calorific value
 Composting – home & Industrial
- Logistics - collection for industrial compost
• Green DOT collection tax exemmption for EN13432 to end by late 2012 as a result
- Feasible volume
- Consumer awareness for home compost

17. Sustainability: Shared Responsibility
 Incorporation/ Collaboration of bio-plastics in sustainability
strategies of local packaging councils and government
- e.g. packaging council Australia Inc (PCA), Australian packaging
covenant (APC), environmental protection agency (EPA)
 Leverage international counterpart technology & policy
- e.g. waste reduction awards program (WRAP - UK)
 £5m fund designed to support the development of new mixed plastics
 Collection of rigid plastics guidelines
 Compostable bio-plastics to be disposed off in food waste anaerobic
digestion
 Standardised labelling schemes

18. References
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/images/d/d9/Share_of_recycling_and_recovery_operation_for_plastics_packaging_2008.PNG
 http://www.pca.org.au/uploads/00207.pdf
http://en.european-bio-plastics.org/press/press-pictures/service-packaging/
http://en.european-ioplastics.org/wpontent/uploads/2011/04/EuBP_image_brochure_2011.pdf
http://www.icis.com/Articles/2011/12/02/9513755/world-bio-plastics-demand-to-reach-2.9b-by-2015-us-firm.html
http://naturalplasticstests.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/consumer-awareness-of-environmental.html
http://www.packagingdigest.com/article/518350-What_s_driving_sustainable_packaging_development_.php
www.smitherspira.com
http://www.packagingdigest.com/article/518350-What_s_driving_sustainable_packaging_development_.php
www.packagingcovenant.org.au
www.pca.org.au
 www.wrap.org.uk