Bioplastics: A Growing Market?

When I attended the BIO World Congress this past May, I was surprised at the number of biopolymer-based promotional materials handed out and accumulated quite an enviable collection of bioplastic mugs, pens, and rulers. According to the Canadian NRC Industrial Materials Institute (NRC-IMI), bioplastics will soon be the norm and indiscernible from traditional petrochemical-based polymers. What’s news to me is that some major companies such as Wal-Mart and McDonald’s are favouring bio-based products in their purchasing policies, as is the US government, according to the NRCC’s summer 2008 Newslink newsletter. While bioplastics are desirable because they degrade to carbon dioxide, water and biomass, the costs of producing them, and limited usefulness due to their properties, have prevented them from catching hold of a sizable market. Biotechnology research has changed some of that. Scientists at the NRCC are using starch-based polymers to make plastics and polymer blends with other materials, to overcome some of these obstacles…and, of course, rising oil prices are also likely to contribute to their accelerated development and acceptance.

_Source:

Breakthrough for Bioplastics. NRC Newslink, Summer 2008.