BIO-BASED POLYMERS | MATERIALS
Bioplastics for the long and short term
Diversification is now the watchword for bio-based polymers as applications spread from biodegradable packaging to durable uses in areas usually served by engineering
compounds.Peter Mapleston finds out the latest
From compostable plant pots to highly durable car headlamp covers, plastics derived from renewables are moving into more and more applications across consumer and industrial sectors. Sometimes these biopolymers are biodegradable, even compostable – particularly important for products with short lifetimes, especially packaging — increasingly though, they are not. It is now possible to obtain durable high-performance polymers like polyam- ides of various types and thermoplastic polyesters, including polycarbonate, from renewable resources. Here is a look at a few of the latest developments. Starting in Europe, but moving around the
world, is legislation that bans non-biodegradable plastics from a range of single-use applications. In the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive, plastic is defined as a polymer obtained through chemical modification of raw material, with the exception of natural polymers. Strictly applied, this has implica- tions that may not necessarily have been consid- ered at the time of drafting the legislation. At Italian compounder MAIP, which has devel-
www.injectionworld.com
oped a wide range of materials based on different bio-based and bio-degradable polymers, Manag- ing Director Eligio Martini says this means that only plastic items made with natural, non-chemically modified polymers can be used for the listed single-use products. He highlights IamNature, based on polyhydroxyalkanoates, PHAs, produced by biosynthesis in bacteria (see also Compounding World March 2019) and biodegradable in all conditions, including seawater. “Bio-based polymers that are obtained from biological-based monomers cannot be considered natural polymers,” says Martini. “They are always synthesized by a polymerisation reaction outside the plant or microbial cell.” He says this rules out not only polyethylene made from ethylene derived from sugar cane and plant-based polyesters, polyamides, and cellulosics, but also polylactic acid (PLA) and polymers starting from starch. “The only natural polymers that can be consid-
ered to be exempt from the Directive are natural polymers produced by biosynthesis in animals,
June 2020 | INJECTION WORLD 13
Main image: Bioplastics producers are going for growth
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK
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