BioPlastic: Lodestar for the Journey Towards Sustainable Future

Abhrasnata Das

The global bioplastic market is witnessing exponential growth and will continue to capture a greater share of the overall plastic industry y-o-y. According to estimates, bioplastics will control a whopping 40 percent share by 2030, making bioplastics a USD 324 billion-dollar industry, Grand View Research.

Corporations and consumers are becoming conscious of the dangers of petroleum-based plastics and the advantage of sustainable plastics. Organizations are now employing sustainability officers to incorporate best practices into their manufacturing and procurement processes.

Plastics are an integral part of manufacturing, and investing in Bioplastic means replacing the dated, unsustainable technology with a new one that causes minuscule change to infrastructure while maintaining quality and effectiveness.

Bioplastics are now gaining popularity across multiple industries, thereby helping companies to abide by environmental norms without sacrificing business profitability. Let's now look into the different trending use-case cases of bioplastics in different industry verticals.

Innovating Food and Beverage Segment

Grabbing food and drinks on the go is increasingly popular for people with lifestyles but it also leads to an increased waste generation that needs to be disposed of responsibly. Having stated that, bioplastics are playing a significant role to reduce the waste generation in the F&B segment.

Big players like Coca-cola are taking an early active stance to harness the potential of bioplastics in its operation. The company has launched has partnered with Changchun Miehe Science and Technology and Finnish forestry bioeconomy firm UPM, to help the firm reduce its dependency on oil-based plastic. Coca-cola has even launched its first 100 percent bioplastic-based bottles.

Brazil-based beer brand Cervajaria Colorado is using compostable and recyclable bioplastic cans that are said to lower CO2 emission by 50 percent and electricity consumption by 25 percent.

Demand in Consumer Electric Market

Different electronic products like — casing, circuit boards, and data storage are all broadly made from oil-based plastics. Hence, the booming usage of plastic in the electronics industry brings an opportunity to switch these components over. Bioplastics, today provide the electronics industry with an excellent opportunity to refine its environmental credentials as they can be injection molded with similar characteristics to traditional plastics without upgrading any machinery.

As the nature of electronics is much more complicated than any other product, the poor temperature resistance characteristics of the bioplastics were a major hurdle, limiting the industry in transiting towards this alternative.

.However, novel technologies have produced some big advancements in this area; thereby considerably increasing the temperature resistance. The overall advancement has helped bioplastics to evolve into a suitable alternative for many components produced by the electronics industry.

Non-toxic Bioplastic For Medical Use

Bioplastics are also receiving a surging demand from the medical industry. Today, numerous medical devices like pins, tacks, and screws which are used to help bones heal and during reconstructive surgery are being produced with bioplastics.

Nontoxic biodegradable bioplastics stitches are also used by medical professionals in hospitals. These products are easy to sterilize, robust, and remain in place until the tissue has healed. The novel bioplastic-based stitches get dissolved by the body leaving no marks behind.

Bioplastic can be used to create containers for creams and tablets. Bioplastic components may be produced in a regulated, specific white room molding cell, much as regular medical goods. Key Plastics has these capabilities with an ISO 7 clean room.

Poised For Growth

Bioplastics are subject to numerous studies and have been increasingly present in the world today. Their applications are rapidly growing in all fields of human activities. Some manufacturers in the automotive industry play a leading role in bioplastic usage.

Products based on biomass, especially in textile and related industries, are very promising. Currently, the bioplastic production cost is one of the major factors that determine the effectiveness of their implementations. It is expected that bioplastics will become cheaper particularly as a consequence of the development of new technologies and by achieving the required economy.

Advancing the application of bioplastic will require managing waste disposal. Recycling appears to be the best solution from that point, for disposal of the bio-based product to maximize the environmental footprint as well as reduce the renewable resources consumption.