NatureWorks conference: Innovation, collaboration drive PLA’s success
- Filed in:
- Additives,
- Bioplastics
Conference on PLA covers issues from ‘resin to retailer.’
At NatureWorks LLC’s April Innovation Takes Root 2010 (ITR) conference, the message was clear: Biopolymer’s time has come, and innovation and collaboration are the keys to continuing its forward momentum. As NatureWorks president and CEO Marc Verbruggen told the 320 to 350 attendees at the Dallas event, “Biopolymers are here to stay. They meet a strategic need to shed our oil addiction, they meet a strategic need to lower our carbon footprint, and they meet global consumer expectations for sustainability without sacrifice.”
Originally launched in 2008 as a users’ group of sorts, focused on technology, this second staging of the event sought to cover a broader range of issues, “from resin to retailer,” explained Steve Davies, NatureWorks director of marketing and public affairs. In this spirit, it offered eight tracks and 40 presenters, speaking on a myriad of topics, including commercial applications, technology innovations, regulations and standards, sustainability marketing, and the green consumer profile.
Evident was the engagement and collaboration that has moved the market for polylactic acid forward. Said Verbruggen, “When it comes to new applications, it’s not just NatureWorks making changes and innovations, it’s additive suppliers and converters making changes to enhance the properties [of Ingeo]."
One notable development in the PLA story is new infrastructure to recycle the material. Plarco, Inc. is the first company in the U.S. exclusively dedicated to recycling post-consumer and post-industrial PLA back into lactic acid. New venture BioCor plans to buy and resell post-consumer and post-industrial PLA for use in a variety of end markets. And in Belgium, Galactic has developed the LOOPLA® system for chemical recycling of PLA back into lactic acid. Said BioCor president Mike Centers, “PLA has a good front end story; now there’s a good back-end story as well.”
Other initiatives being undertaken to encourage growth and acceptance of the biopolymer include NatureWorks’ participation in an ASTM working group to re-evaluate the Resin Identification Coding system and a number of technology advancements by additive suppliers to enhance the properties of PLA for new applications.
Other highlights of the event included presentations from pioneering brand owners and converters who have made the PLA plunge. These include Frito-Lay with its 100% compostable snack bag for its SunChips snack chip brand; Snyder’s of Hanover, which recently launched a 90% bio-based bag for its organic pretzels line; International Paper Food Services, with its ecotainer® plant-based foodservice disposables; and Target, which is now using PLA in its bakery packaging.
Summarizing the value of all of NatureWorks partnerships in advancing the industry, Davies said, “We are a resin producer. This is the amplification factor that is making it work.”
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Wonderful news -- two companies are in place to recycle PLA products after they've been disposed of. It's good to know that someone is rescuing the PLA that's tossed into a recycling bin with PET, picking it up from recycling facilities that might otherwise send it to a landfill, and recycling the PLA for its pellets.
But Planco is in Wisconsin. BIOCOR is in California. How is the average consumer supposed to get PLA products into these two facilities? When I leave a restaurant with a PLA-based compostable take-out container, there's no way of knowing whether it'll sit in a landfill for 100 to 1,000 years.
We're one step closer toward closing the loop on compostable packaging. But we need dedicated nationwide collection systems for post consumer PLA waste if this is going to work.
Good initial steps for developing a PLA recycling infrastructre. But the gaps between facilities, collection systems, and any type of consumer education are huge -- likely even greater than the green gap that exists in the areas of the same with regards to compostability. Not a whole lot of tangible consumer benefit to this now, or for the foreseable future.
This sounds like a positive step for PLA. It will be interesting to see if PLA recycling takes hold and is economical in the long run. I'm also interested to see what research follows from NatureWorks about the carbon impact of recycling vs composting their material. I acknowledge that the carbon impact of producing PLA is better than petrochemical resins either way. Also, does anyone know of any companies working on recycling other biopolymers? I imagine the sorting could be challenging.
This sounds like a positive step for PLA. It will be interesting to see if PLA recycling takes hold and is economical in the long run. I'm also interested to see what research follows from NatureWorks about the carbon impact of recycling vs composting their material. I acknowledge that the carbon impact of producing PLA is better than petrochemical resins either way. Also, does anyone know of any companies working on recycling other biopolymers? I imagine the sorting could be challenging.
Recycling possibilities of PLA are positive developments, but the limited number of recylcing units and the quantity of PLA products to be recyled, does not convince the feasibility. The better option for PLA is composting through industrial composters.
Luke: "I acknowledge that the carbon impact of producing PLA is better than petrochemical resins either way." Actually, there's a lot of dispute about that. The ULA review of life cycle data compared disposable and compostable plastic bags and found that PLA bags produce more greenhouse gases than regular plastic bags.
Bernard: Industrial composting is ideal, but there are very few industrial composters in the U.S., and even fewer facilities that service municipal waste streams. So PLA products end up at recyclers, where they're considered contaminants.
Miranda : If the industrial composteres are limited and if for recylcing PLA is considered as contaminents, then what is the future for PLA ?
It is strange to note that USA has more plastic recyclers than composters. We produce more organic waste (food waste, biosolids, etc) than plastic waste and it can be converted to organic fertiliser, thus enrich the soil. Inspite of active plastic industry a small percentage of plastic is recyled and the major quantity pollutes the landfills and oceans.
I feel the use of plastic has to be reduced and so also new infrastructure for their recycling. The use of biodegradable alternatives has to be encouraged along with composting. This will make the world a better place for all forms of life.
When it comes to EOL options, the solution may not be unique but plural. With PLA being adapted for new kinds of application, the presence of additives/coloring agents/compounds may not allow the composting way. Chemical recycling is one of the answers: because the material is retrieved, environmental impacts are substantially reduced (no additional land use). Furthermore, a value can be given for PLA Waste.
Bernard, I could not agree more.
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