Bioplastics firm touts energy saving potential of plant-based packaging

Switching from conventional plastics to biodegradable bioplastics made from corn starch will not only help reduce demand for oil and cut the amount of waste sent to landfill, it could also help deliver deep cuts in carbon emissions.

That is the conclusion of a new study from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology commissioned by bioplastics manufacturer Plantic Technologies, which found that the latest bioplastics use 60 per cent less energy through their lifecycle than conventional polyethylene plastics and half the energy used by polylactic acid (PLA) bioplastics.

"We have improved the manufacturing processes so that even with the energy associated with growing the corn included the full lifecycle energy use is much lower than conventional plastics," said Plantic chief executive Brendan Morris. "The process is based on an amylase molecule naturally occurring in corn-based industrial starch, which means we don't need to use a big energy intensive fermentation process or polymerisation process."

According to the research, one sheet of Plantic material containing enough plastic to make 1,000 chocolate trays uses 544MJ of energy, while 1,000 conventional polyethylene trays use 1,362MJ.

Researchers calculated that switching all the Easter Egg packaging that will be used in the UK this year over to bioplastic would save enough energy to power more than one million households from Good Friday to Easter Sunday.

Morris said that recent improvements in bioplastics meant there was an increasingly strong case for using them as an alternative to conventional oil-based plastics. "We still need packaging to keep levels of food loss low, but we should not be using our scarce oil resource for packaging when there are viable alternatives," he argued, adding that not only would Plantic's bioplastic biodegrade in household compost, but also work with existing equipment for moulding plastic packaging.

Some environmental groups have raised concerns that increased demand for bioplastics would have a similar impact to rising demand for first generation biofuels; eating into food supplies and driving up prices while indirectly contributing to deforestation.

However, Morris insisted such fears were unfounded and that bioplastics could become a mainstream alternative to conventional plastics without having an adverse impact on food supplies. "There is an order of magnitude difference between biofuel and bioplastics," he said. "There have been studies that have shown that while all the agricultural land in the US would be needed for biofuel to replace gasoline only 20 per cent of the land would be required to meet demand for plastic."

He added that similar research from the European Bioplastics Association had shown that Europe could produce enough bioplastic to replace conventional plastic from agricultural land that is currently unused.

Plantic - which provides moulded plastic packaging to Marks & Spencer, Cadburys and Sainsburys - is now working with packaging manufacturer Amcor to develop flexible packaging made from plant-based material.

Morris said the two companies were on track to launch the new bioplastic, which could be used to package chocolate bars and other forms of confectionary, before the end of the year.