EU urged to support European bioplastics industry

Bioplastics are a "clear and tangible" example of the bio-based economy, EU policymakers and stakeholders have been told.

This was the main message to emerge from an awareness raising exhibition and conference on plastics and the bio-economy held in Brussels late last week.

Speaking at the conference on Thursday in the European parliament, Dutch centre-right MEP Lambert van Nistelrooij said bioplastics were a "clear and tangible example of the bio-based economy at work", but warned that the industry still faced "a number of obstacles" on the road to reaching its full market potential within the EU.

He told the event, organised by the industry's umbrella association, European Bioplastics, that he welcomed the opportunity to assist in, "developing more synergies" for the fledgling industry "against the tough realities" that bioplastics businesses currently find themselves in.

"Bioplastics offer great opportunities for smart, green and inclusive growth and there are already several EU supportive measures regarding bioplastics."

"But, it is vital that EU policy focuses on implementing them in the short term."

Benefits of the bioplastics industry

Bioplastics are plastics that are bio-based, biodegradable or both. They are produced from a range of plant-based materials such as corn, sugar cane, wood and straw and the resulting polymers can be processed into a vast number of products using conventional plastics processing techniques.

The perception of the industry as a concrete example of the bio-based economy was highlighted by several of the conference speakers, including European Bioplastics chair Andy Sweetman who said it was essential that the issues affecting the bioplastics industry were recognised and understood by policymakers and that the industry was "seen" within the EU policy framework.

"It's clear that the bio-economy is an important issue at EU level, [so] we have to encourage greater awareness of the bioplastics industry, its products and their benefits."

Those benefits are potentially substantial, as bioplastics could help reduce the EU's reliance on oil and drastically reduce the bloc's carbon emissions.

"Bioplastics offer two distinctive advantages, their renewability and availability."

According to Sweetman, under the right conditions, bioplastics can reduce CO2 emissions by 30-80 per cent compared to conventional plastics and demand is growing at a rate of 20 per cent per year.

"There is no doubt that the market is going to grow," he said, "but the big question is how big, how quickly and where?"

Industry concerns

Europe's share of global bioplastics production capacity is currently around 27 per cent. However, that figure is set to drop by almost 10 per cent by 2015 as some of the industry's big players set up or expand production facilities in Canada, the US, South America and south east Asia.

"The predictions are that everywhere will grow faster than Europe; we obviously don't want that to happen," said Sweetman.

His concerns were echoed by Marc Verbruggen, the president and CEO of NatureWorks, the world's largest bioplastics producer, based in Nebraska, who warned that the industry was at a crucial crossroads regarding its future.

Verbruggen said the next 10 years would see the industry either remain a niche product with limited economic and environmental impact, or break out as a mass-market product with scales similar to regular plastics linked to large numbers of new and greener jobs.

Future of the EU bio-based economy

Outlining the current EU policy initiatives related to the sector, Maive Rute, director DG research and innovation at the European commission congratulated the bioplastics industry on its impressive growth over the last 10 years.

Rute, who is currently finalising the upcoming EU strategy and action plan on developing a bio-based economy by 2020, said, "As mentioned, bioplastics are a tangible and central aspect of the bio economy."

"The potential market for bioplastics is huge," said Rute, adding that from the European commission's perspective, the bio economy was an "important growth market".

Rute said that over the last year, significant progress had been made towards integrating biotechnology into EU policy, particularly within the EU 2020 strategy of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth.

Within the current Multiannual budget discussions, Rute said that the commission had called for a significant increase in the EU's next research funding programme, Horizon 2020, with a specific allocation of €4.5bn dedicated to bio economy research.

"[The call to increase research in this area] is significant. This message clearly builds on the work we have been doing on the knowledge-based bio economy. It illustrates the high-level recognition of the sector."

The role of brand owners

The role of retail and brand owners in developing the bio economy, and in particular bioplastics, was identified as crucial to the industry's success, with both Danone and Coca-Cola investing strongly in bioplastic bottling and packaging technologies.

Danone's director for the environment, Vincent Crasnier said the company's move into the bioplastics arena was driven by its overarching environmental strategy.

"Nature has always been central to the strategy of the company…it's part of our DNA."

For us, business and nature are not in competition. It's not been easy, but we believe it's the right thing to do."

Crasnier argued that it was essential that the development of the company's renewable packaging strategy, "was not in competition" with food production and that "end of life" recovery was critical. "Our aim is 100 per cent recyclability."

His comments were supported by Cees van Dongen, the director for sustainable packaging at Coca-Cola Europe, who said, "For us [Coca-Cola] it's a journey…to remain competitive we must do more with less, but we also have to realise that this is a shift in paradigm regarding material resources."

Van Dongen called for EU policymakers to help, "upscale the industry as much as possible".

"We need to develop the material supply chain…economies of scale will help investment in capacity. For us, it's only a matter of time."

Closing the biodegradable loop

The contribution of bioplastics, particularly those that are biodegradable and compostable, in helping the EU deliver a sustainable economy was outlined by Francesco Degli Innocenti, product ecology and environmental communications manager at Novamont.

Degli Innocenti argued that the driving factors of the bioplastics industry, such as the use of renewable resources, less dependency on fossil fuels, the potential to cut emissions and increase industrial competitiveness are of both high societal and economic interest to the EU.

"Bio-based products [such as biodegradable plastic carrier bags] feed into the EU's sustainability strategies, through their cradle-to-cradle, or in this case, soil-to-soil approach."

"However, we still need markets of sufficient scale and consumers willing to buy these products. We need a landscape where bio-based products can exist. We need a push-pull metaphor for bio products.

He said Italy's recent law banning non-biodegradable single-use carrier bags had created the right landscape, ensuring that compostable bioplastic bags became the norm. This had a 'pull' effect, developing an industrial chain for the production and recovery of biodegradable plastic.

He also welcomed the support for the wider use of biodegradable plastics in the commission's recently published roadmap to a resource efficient Europe

"The reference to biodegradable plastics by the commission shows that the work conducted by Novamont in creating and promoting new biodegradable and compostable materials…provides an effective response to European political priorities."

The vice-president of speciality plastics at BASF, Robert Heger agreed with Degli Innocenti adding that, "biodegradable plastics could provide endless opportunities for both industry and the environment" and could be a major contributor to the EU's concept of a bio economy.

"Compostable plastic bags help divert bio-waste from landfill and turn it into valuable compost. It's about closing the loop."

There are major economic and environmental benefits, but at the moment, less than 30 per cent of organic waste in the EU is collected separately.

"Biodegradable plastic bags are a great tool to increase the amount of organic waste that can be recycled, but we need close collaboration between policymakers to tap their full potential."

Heger argued that a significant increase in organic waste collection is needed if Europe wanted to meet its targets in both the landfill and waste framework directives.

And looking ahead, Heger called for assurances from policymakers that the official legal definition of organic waste included biodegradable plastics.

Future development

Speaking to this website after the conference, Lambert van Nistelrooij said EU policymakers and in particular MEPs, "can do a lot" to promote the development of Europe's bio economy.

"We now have the EU 2020 strategy where we are working in a more integrated way in which industries, agriculture and all kinds of knowledge institutes can work together."

He added, "We will support the bio-based economy strongly. Europe wants to be smarter, greener and more inclusive and in that the bio-based economy plays a central role.

"Our knowledge in Europe is first class. We can play a very big role. The game changers are already here, and one of those game changers is bioplastics."

For European Bioplastics chairman, Andy Sweetman, the message from the conference and exhibition were clear.

"What is important is to make sure that we don't just do the innovation here in Europe, and then watch all the other stages move offshore. This is a global business, bioplastics inhabit the global world like everything else, so we need to make sure that the EU is doing its fair share [to assist] that entire chain, from agricultural feedstock, through innovation and on to actual manufacturing and use and consumption on the ground."

We are a sustainable industry, that's absolutely what we are all about," argued Sweetman.

"The catchphrase of the association is 'driving the evolution of plastics'. These are still plastic materials, with the functionality and the fantastic properties we get from plastics, but fundamentally from a renewable resource."

"So we have the vision of sustainability that you simply cannot have from a finite resource. Our whole industry is built upon that key value proposition of renewable raw materials and end of life advantages."

"In terms of size today, at European level, we are talking about a few hundred thousand tonnes of production. What we would like to see by 2020 is more like 2.5 million tonnes of bioplastic production. So moving it, in plastics terms, from a niche, and turning it into mainstream."

"We still have a long way to go to reach the levels and economies of scale of conventional plastics, so what we want [from policymakers] is to create the landscape that allows that to occur."