Bioplastic Conference 2019 aimed to gather the industry to update everybody on what is possible with biobased plastic materials and the state of the biodegradable materials. See presentations and pictures from the sold out event here.
By joint effort IDA Polymer, Inno-MT, Nordisk Bioplastforening, Technological Institute, and the Danish Plastics Federation last week succeeded to create a one-day-seminar on Bioplastics that filled up the entire Mogens Dahl Koncertsal venue with enthusiastic bio-plastic delegates.
The objective was to gather the industry to update everybody on what is possible with biobased plastic materials and the state of the biodegradable materials.
An important topic throughout the conference was to keep the definitions right and tell the difference between the two material properties.
If anyone is uncertain about this definition it might be helpful to repeat that:
- Biobased plastic is primarily made from renewables ie. natural feedstock
Several biobased materials were covered throughout the presentations, from PE and PET to advanced glass fiber reinforced PLA types. - Biodegradable plastic is made to biodegrade and compost according to global certifications
Some materials might be both: biobased and biodegradable, but one does not guarantee the other.
During the days’ several cases on biodegradability was presented. The Barcelona based Café Novell showcased its biodegradable coffee capsule, made to degrade together with the coffee grounds.
This proposed a solution to handle some of the waste produced by the 19 million coffee capsules that is consumed daily in Spain and was considered a good example on the correct use of biodegradable bioplastics, that is explicitly for applications where the plastic cannot be retrieved for recycling.
Choosing the right plastic material for a given task is always a challenging job. Biobased variants are interesting and promising additions to the range of traditional plastics from which this choice is typically made. Biodegradability adds to this complexity by introducing alternate ways to dispose of the product after end usage. The conference shed interesting light on these topics.
Based on the feedback received, the conference succeeded in the goal it set out to reach: to help everybody get a better understanding of the current state of bioplastic.
However, it is also certain that the topic demands much more attention and that the conference will be followed by a similar conference next year.
Download presentations
- Eike Langenberg: Biobased materials – Rethinking the status quo
- Katharina schlegel: Biodegradable polymers – Cause or solution to microplastic in soil
- Grane Maaløe: Bioplastic and the environmental strategy at Arla
- Gitte Kristensen: Bioplastic today – an overview
- Tomi Kangas: Breaking the limits of bioplastics – using degradable glass fiber as reinforcement
- Frank Jensen: Perspectives on biobased and biodegradable plastics in relation to the Danish Plastic Strategy
- Charlotte Merlin: Pro’s and con’s of bioplastics in a lifecycle perspective
- Lars Storm Pedersen: Sourcing of feed stock for biopolymers
- Carles Sanz: The development of biodegradable coffee capsules
- Panu Keski-Nisula: Why biodegradable plastics
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