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Issue 2/2012Issue 2/2013

the surface required to grow sufficient feed-stock for today’s bioplastic production is less than 0.006 percent of the global agricultural area of 5 billion hectares.

this is a key finding published beginning of April by european bioplastics, based on fig-ures from the Food and Agriculture organi-zation of the united nations (FAo) and cal-culations of the institute for bioplastics and biocomposites (ifbb, university Hannover, germany.

these insights into land use are part of a new european bioplastics brochure “bioplastics - facts & figures“. in a world with a rapidly grow-ing population and its increasing demand for food and feed, the use of feedstock for non-food purposes is often the subject of contro-versial debate. the new brochure aims to help move the discussion on to a factual level.

of the 13.4 billion hectares of global land sur-face, around 37 percent (5 billion hectares) is currently used for agriculture. this includes

pastures (70 percent, approximately 3.5 billion hectares) and arable land (30 percent, approx-imately 1.4 billion hectares).

these 30 percent of arable land are further di-vided into areas predominantly used to grow crops for food and feed (27 percent, approxi-mately 1.29 billion hectares), as well as crops for materials (2 percent, approximately 100 million hectares, including the share used for bioplastics), and crops for biofuels (1 percent, approximately 55 million hectares).

Land use – bioplastics use only a minimal fraction of global agricultural area +++ Adapting to the

upcoming EU Packaging Directive 2014 +++ Swiss consensus on biodegradable plastics in waste

streams +++ 8th European Bioplastics Conference +++ In brief +++ Member portrait +++ Calendar

Land use – biopLastics use onLy a minimaL fraction of gLobaL agricuLturaL area

Less than 0.006 percent of the global agricultural area are currently used to grow biomass for bioplastics.

BIOPLASTICS rely on 0,006 % of the global agricultural area of 5 billion ha. This compares to the size of an average

Cherry TOmATO vis-à-vis the eiffel Tower.

Global land area13.4 billion ha = 100 %

Global agricultural area 5 billion ha = 37%

Pasture3.5 billion ha = 70%* Arable land1.4 billion ha = 30%*

Biofuels55 million ha = 1%*

Material use100 million ha = 2%*

Bioplastics2011: 300,000 ha = 0.006 %* 2016: 1.1 million ha = 0.022 %*

GLOBAL AGRICULTURAL AREA

Food & Feed1.29 billion ha = 27%*

Land use for bioplastics 2011 and 2016

Source: European Bioplastics | Institute for Bioplastics and Biocomposites (October 2012) / FAO * In relation to global agricultural area.

supporting member

Issue 2/20132 | european bioplastics bulletin

minimal fraction of land used for bio-plasticseuropean bioplastics market data de-

picts production capacities of around 1.2 million tonnes in 2011. this translates to ap-proximately 300,000 hectares of land use to grow feedstock for bioplastics. in relation to the global agricultural area of 5 billion hect-ares, bioplastics only make use of 0.006 percent. metaphorically speaking, this ratio correlates to the size of an average cherry tomato placed next to the eiffel tower.

No competition to food and feedA glance at the global agricultural area and the way it is used makes it abundantly clear: 0.006 percent used to grow feedstock for bioplastics is nowhere near being in compe-

tition with the 98 percent used for pastures and to grow food and feed.

Balancing land use in the future“increasing the efficiency of feedstock and agricultural technology will be key to assur-ing the balance between land use for innova-tive bioplastics and land for food and feed”, says Hasso von pogrell, managing Director of european bioplastics. “the emergence of reliable and independent sustainability assessment schemes will also contribute to this goal.”

Downloads: brochure (english): http://en.european-bio-plastics.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/publica-tions/eubp_FactsFigures_bioplastics_2013.pdf

information graph on land use (english): http://en.european-bioplastics.org/down-load/labelling/eubp_Land_use_2013.jpg

information graph on land use (german):http://en.european-bioplastics.org/download/labelling/eubp_Landnutzung_2013.jpeg ■

Since 1994, the EU Packaging & Packaging Waste Directive places responsibility for ensuring that “packaging is not excessive for the purpose intended and is suitable for recycling, energy recovery or composting” firmly with the packaging producer. In 2014, the ordinance will be revised. The emphasis - as announced by the European Commis-

sion - is that waste minimization and recov-ery should be built into the package at its design stage to ensure resource efficiencies as well as to protect products.

Eurostat, the statistical office of the Euro-pean Union, claims waste plastics packag-ing material in the EU15 increased from 9.9

million tonnes in 1998 to 13.1 million tonnes in 2008. Of this, 40 percent of municipal waste was landfilled, 20 percent incinerated, 23 percent recycled and 17 percent compos-ted. Bioplastics are a family of multiple materi-als. All the established end of life options are open to bioplastic materials. Depend-ing on the material and keeping the require-ments of the upcoming Packaging Directive in mind, the end consumer should be trans-parently informed which end of life option is preferable for a particular product. A good example here is Innovia Films Ltd which has teamed up with Sappi Fine Paper Europe in order to demonstrate end-of-life options for flexible laminates that permit industrial/home composting. Both compa-nies’ materials are cellulose based and were independently certified to be compostable in home and industrial environments (“OK Compost Home” certification by Vinçotte, and DIN E13432 certification by DIN CERT-CO). The development of coffee, snack bar and single serve drink packs is intended to show how waste can become a useful ener-gy source and therefore these products are in line with the new Packaging Directive.■

adapting to the upcoming eu packaging directive 2014

Bioplastics facts and figures

supporting member

interview with Daniel Trachsel, Managing Direc-tor, Association of Swiss Composting and Methanisa-tion Plants

switzerland is the first country that has reached

an all-stakeholder consensus regarding the treatment of bio-degradable materials (including biodegrad-able plastics) in waste streams. could you outline the gist of the compromise?the agreement includes restricted accep-tance of bioplastics in biowaste treatment plants to further on guarantee a good qual-ity of compost and digestate. only bags designed for the collection of biowaste (primarily or secondary use) are allowed without restrictions. other bioplastics like dishes, flower pots or sheeting may only be composted or fermented if they origi-nate from a defined source like events or companies that agreed in advance with the biowaste treatment plant. All bioplastics meant to be composted or fermented have to be marked with a grid printed on at least 70 percent of the surface. the communica-tion on the material has to point clearly to the optimal disposal chain.

how did you arrive at this compromise, which stakeholders were included and what were the important milestones of the process?starting in 2001, cities faced with bioplastic bags undistinguishable from normal plas-tics and containing lots of contraries were alarmed and started building up a working group. today, the whole supply chain and the disposal chain are involved. this in-cludes producers of raw material, dealers, wholesalers, plastic recyclers, municipial disposers, biowaste treatment plants and national authorities. We do regret that the

two new german players on the swiss mar-ket, Aldi and Lidl, have not yet joined the consensus. the first consensus was found in 2004, followed by an interim version 2008. the 2013 consensus is the result of four years of negociations.

What are the next steps regarding the im-plementation of the compromise?the consensus is meant to be addressed business to business. therefore, no broad communication is planned. We are try-ing to convince the national legislation to adopt the core issues of the consensus into a planned national ordinance. until now, the consensus bases only on a private agreement amongst the stakeholders.

Would it make sense to “export” your ap-proach to other european countries? We would strongly appreciate our consen-sus to be exported to the eu. mainly the fact that products coming from the eu aren’t marked according to the consensus troubles severely the acceptance of the consensus in switzerland.

more information about the swiss consen-sus is available at www.evaluation-bioplas-tics.ch in english, german, french and ital-ian language.■

Issue 2/20133 | european bioplastics bulletin

member portrait5 facts about DuPont

1. Founded in 1802, Dupont today operates in approximately 90 countries and counts 67,000 employees worldwide. the company is an industry leader in high performance re-newably-sourced and sustainable polymers with a broad and expanding portfolio.

2. this new generation of renewably -sourced materials reduces the environmen-tal footprint without compromising perfor-mance. it includes material families such as: Dupont™ sorona® ep ptt renewably sourced polyester, Dupont™ Hytrel® rs renewably sourced thermoplastic polyester elastomer, and Dupont ™Zytel® rs renew-ably sourced long chain nylon products.

3. Dupont’s biobased performance poly-mers are used in key market segments such as automotive, electrical/electronic, hand held devices and many more.

4. the company is active in increasing the performance of renewably sourced poly-mers like pLA under its biomax™ and Fusa-bond® product families to enable the use of these materials in more demanding ap-plications.

5. Dupont also announced its cooperation with braskem to introduce bio-based coex-trudable tie-layers for bio-pe in multilayer packaging (bynel®) and renewable sourced Fusabond® as coupling agents in WpC and starch compounds. ■

sWitzerLand reaches consensus on bio-degradabLe pLastics in Waste streams

Thomas Werner, DuPont !

„Renewably Sourced “ logo of DuPont:

Dupont has developed a special logo which in-dicates all its bio-based polymers with a mini-mum of 20% renewable content by weight. Con-sequently, the immense portfolio of Dupont is easy to navigating for all companies interested in bio-based solutions.

!

european bioplastics is delighted to host the 8th european bioplastics Conference– the leading international business forum for the bioplastics industry in europe. the event will take place on 10/11 December 2013 at the interContinental Hotel in berlin (germany).

Building a biobased future for Europebioplastics are part of a biobased future in europe. this year’s “european bioplastics Conference“ will showcase the industry’s enormous potential. A challenge to be met in the future will be to make bioplastics in-creasingly tangible for business contacts and end consumers. the 8th european bi-oplastics Conference will provide informa-tion and guidance as to how to meet this challenge during the market development phase, where bioplastics are progressing beyond the niche, and mass market prod-ucts can be experienced by every consumer.

What awaits the attendees?- in 2012, over 400 experts from around the globe came together at the 7th conference and impressively dem- onstrated the conference’s tremendous effectiveness in networking and information exchange.- in 2013, participants can expect a new and diversified conference format as well as an improved mix of expert presentations meeting individual needs and interests. - building on last year’s success with record exhibition attendance, the 8th Conference is set to offer even more exhibition space.- excellent networking opportunities: the 8th Conference is set to offer a professional networking tool and an exclusive networking area.

more information on the 8th european bio-plastics Conference, the registration, call for papers and sponsoring opportunities is available at: http://en.european-bioplas-tics.org/conference/ ■

Issue 2/2013

caLendar

20-23 may 2013guangzhou, China

Chinaplas 2013www.chinaplasonline.com

11-12 June 2013Chicago, usA

7th Biopolymers Symposiumhttp://www.biopolymersummit.com/home.aspx

11-12 June 2013 bad neuenahr, germany

16. internationaler Altkunststofftag http://www.bvse.de/23/6088/11__12_06_2013___16__Internationaler_Altkunststofftag_in_Bad_Neuenahr

25-26 June 2013Copenhagen, Denmark

World Bio Markets Technology & Innovationhttp://greenpower.msgfocus.com/c/11ONKaAtzayVkZ426lNB2tG1

26-28 June 2013san Francisco, usA

BioPlastek 2013www.bioplastek.com

4 | european bioplastics bulletin

Imprint:european bioplasticsmarienstr. 19/20 · 10117 berlin

tel. +49 (0) 30 28 48 23 50Fax. +49 (0) 30 28 48 23 59e-mail newsletter@european-bioplastics.org

online-newsletter www.european-bioplastics.org/newsletter

in brief

Italian bag legislation: the italian plastic bag application decree has been published in the official journal, and sanctions for non-compliance with the legislation will be enforced effective 27 may 2013.

Modified PLA products in the US: based on pLA from natureworks, Japanese Dai-ichi Kogyo seiyku Co. Ltd. developed a trans-parent, heat-resistant, microwavable pLA compound and is awaiting approval from the u.s. Food and Drug Administration in April 2013. According to Dai-ichi, the pre-mium-priced product can achieve thermal resistance, while it retains the transparency of the original base materials.

Waste to bioplastics: scientists and tech-nologists from eight countries have kicked off a new eu-funded project that explores the conversion of different complex waste streams to valuable products such as bio-plastics. sYnpoL1 has secured almost eur 7.5 million in funding under the Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and biotechnol-ogy theme of the european union seventh Framework programme (Fp7)

PLA supply chain for Russia: roteC (a sub-sidiary of the renova group) and purac (a subsidiary of Csm) signed a co-operation agreement for an economic feasibility study of a poly Lactic Acid (pLA) bioplastic supply chain in russia.

8th european biopLastics conference – buiLding a biobased future for europe