Big bioplastic news

These are some of the bioplastic news that have been piling up in my draft box for the last several months. I am actually working on a bioplastic article for ICIS Chemical Business' November 21 green chemicals issue so these are worth looking over especially as I am focusing more on the consumer side of the market.

Hopefully, several brand owners who have recently announced the use of bioplastic in their product packaging will take pity on me and talk to me soon (my deadline is looming!).

For a little macroeconomics background on bioplastic, BCC Research estimated the global biodegradable polymers market to reach 932m lbs this year and to further increase to 2.5bn lbs by 2016 at a compound annual growth rate of 22% for the 5-year period. The market reached 771m lbs in 2010. The packaging segment accounted for 70% of the  market in terms of total volume in 2010. This sector reportedly will reach 656m lbs this year and should increase to 1.7bn lbs in 2016.

GLOBAL BIODEGRADABLE POLYMER MARKET BY APPLICATION, 2010-2016

Consumer news:

• AT&T started using sugarcane-based PE for its branded accessory packaging mostly device cases and power accessories as of October 2.

• Coca-Cola introduced PlantBottle packaging to Africa as it opens a new facility that will manufacture the company's Valpre Spring Water manufacturing plant in Heidelberg, southeast of Johannesburg. Coca-Cola also rolled out its PlantBottle packaging in the UK starting September. Coca-Cola suggested on this NNFCC article that the company's next generation renewable packaging could be released by 2014.

More on this post...