Brands put brakes on bioplastics over biodiversity and recyclability concerns
Source : Reuters｜Author : Catherine Early
Industry Insight from Ethical Corporation Magazine, a part of Thomson Reuters.
Children play near a giant Lego man in The Netherlands. Lego launched trees and bushes made from sugarcane-based bio-polyethylene in 2018, and has expanded use of the material to around 150 elements. REUTERS/Marco de Swart
Summary
Global bioplastics production set to grow to about 6.3 million tonnes in 2027
In 2022, packaging used 48% of bioplastics, which are criticised for changing land use
Disposal options a problem with compostable bioplastic seen as confusing public
UK's Compostable Coalition examining packaging collection, sorting and treatment
U.S. has set target to replace 90% of plastics with biomaterials in next 20 years
July 11 - Consumer concerns about plastic pollution have led many brands to look at bio-based alternatives.
Global production capacity of bioplastics is set to grow from around 2.23 million tonnes in 2022 to approximately 6.3 million tonnes in 2027, according to trade body European Bioplastics.
By far the largest application remains packaging, which consumed 48% of the total market in 2022. Major brands that are using bioplastics include Coca-Cola, which introduced its PlantBottle made from 30% plant-based plastic in 2009, and in 2021 unveiled a prototype made from 100% plant-based plastic, including the cap and label.
Industries such as automotive and transport, agriculture and horticulture, electrics and electronics also use bioplastics, with their relative share in the overall market expected to increase moderately, European Bioplastics says.
Still, the penetration of bioplastics in the overall plastics industry remains minute, at around 1%. “Even a steady growth rate doesn’t mean we have much of a market,” says the organisation’s managing director, Hasso von Pogrell.
Feedstocks for bioplastics manufacture vary from corn starch – most frequently used in the United States – to sugarcane in Asia and a mixture of sugar beet and potato starch in the EU, he says. But new feedstocks are emerging, including algae, biowaste and CO2 taken from the atmosphere.
Sugarcane is carried to a processing plant in Costa Rica. Sugarcane, corn and potato starch, and sugar beet are feedstocks for bioplastics manufacture. REUTERS/Juan Carlos Ulate
Bioplastics have attracted criticism for incentivising land use change, as forests are cleared for feedstock production, and for confusing consumers and the waste industry over disposal. Campaign organisation WWF has convened the Bioplastics Feedstock Alliance since 2013, in an effort to bring corporations together to source bioplastics responsibly. Its members include McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Lego and Nestle.
WWF’s position is that there is a role for bioplastics alongside recycled plastics, to maintain the quality of a product. However, it stresses that it must be responsibly sourced, which depends on the feedstock used, local conditions and the production process.
WWF does not back any particular feedstock over another, arguing that each should be examined on a case-by-case basis. Even lifecycle assessments can only be used as a preliminary method to evaluate a feedstock, since they do not capture land use change impacts, it says.
In terms of disposal, bioplastics can be recyclable, compostable or neither depending on their chemical structure, but they must be reused, recycled or composted to reduce end-of-life impacts, it says.
Materials should be paired with an appropriate waste management system in order to be circular. Above all, WWF stipulates that materials should not be designed to end up in nature, which is a reference to potential issues with biodegradable or compostable plastic if collection and processing is insufficient to recover the material.
The due diligence required by companies before they adopt use of bioplastics is high and has contributed to a lack of take-up, acknowledges Alix Grabowski, WWF’s director of plastic and material science. “None of those questions about sourcing are asked with fossil-based plastics, so it does take time and effort to establish supply chains and to deal with the complex issues,” she says.
Products are displayed in a Lush cosmetics store in London. The company has set up a working group to assess bioplastics.. REUTERS/Neil Hall
In addition, bioplastics are still much more expensive than virgin fossil plastic, which are made cheap by subsidies, she says.
Lego is one company that is rethinking its use of bioplastics. It launched trees and bushes made from sugarcane-based bio-polyethylene in 2018, and has expanded use of the material to around 150 elements, so that half of all Lego sets contain at least one of the plant-based elements.
In a blog, the company’s senior environmental sustainability specialist, Maria Rosenberger Petersen, said that when it first started considering using more sustainable materials in 2015, there was an expectation that it was only a matter of time until bioplastics had a prominent role in the plastics industry, and its products.
However, the company has since realised that it needs to consider biodiversity and the impact on water bodies in the growing and harvesting of feedstocks, as well as just carbon. “If we, in the pursuit of reducing our carbon footprint, risk destroying local environments and jeopardising biodiversity, we need to have oversight of and be able to positively manage the consequences,” she wrote.
Consumer confusion over bioplastics has also become a concern for Lego, alongside the lack of standards and governance to ensure that it can communicate accurately with the public and gain its trust, she wrote.
Maria Feast, from the creative buying team at Lush cosmetics, echoes issues with the complexity of bioplastics. Lush mostly uses its own closed-loop recycling system to source its plastic packaging, but is often sent bioplastics by prospective suppliers, so has set up a working group to assess them.
VeganBottle with zero oil 100% biodegradable compostable made from sugar cane is pictured with bagasse sugar cane (L) and the raw material (C) at the Lyspackaging factory in Saintes, France. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau
“They require a lot of information, which we can’t always get, such as about feedstocks. For example, we need to know if corn is genetically modified as we don’t allow that under our buying policy,” she says.
Tetra Pak is a major user of bioplastics for its Tetra Rex plant-based packaging. The bioplastic it uses in the packaging lids is certified to the Bonsucro Chain of Custody standard, meaning it is fully traceable to its origin.
But Tetra Pak’s use of bioplastics is limited to around 10% of its global products, with half of this a hybrid of bioplastic and fossil plastic. Davide Braghiroli, packaging solutions director at Tetra Pak, explains that lack of supply and the price premium associated with bioplastics has forced it to limit use to regions where consumer demand is highest, such as France, Germany and the Nordics.
“We are trying to create a supply and demand situation where this option is given to customers that want it, because this option is also giving communication opportunities,” he said. The company hopes to expand bioplastic packaging globally, but has no date for this, he says.
Still the company sold 17.6 billion plant-based packages and 10.8 billion plant-based caps in 2021, equating to 96 kilo-tonnes of CO2 saved compared to fossil-based plastic, it says.
Confusion over disposal options has also been an issue for the bioplastics industry. Some bioplastics are compatible with existing recycling streams, such as Bio-PET and Bio-PE. However, compostable bioplastics, in particular, are often accused of misleading or confusing the public, since they are compostable only under particular conditions found in industrial composters, for which infrastructure may be lacking.
Victor Dewulf, chief executive of recycling technology provider Recycleye, is critical of the use of such materials, arguing that their design assumes that they will end up in the environment, a fate that is unlikely in Europe at least, where most countries have reliable recycling systems.
A girl walks past plastic waste in Manila, Philippines. REUTERS/Lisa Marie David
“For countries in south-east Asia, where you do have a lot of plastics ending up in the environment, they may be a better solution, but in Europe it is making it harder to reason to recycle PET (so) it is basically a contaminant.”
Bioplastics Europe refutes this argument, saying that all plastic waste needs to be sorted out, considering how many different types there are, and that fossil-based plastics contaminating composting facilities is a far greater problem than the other way around.
In the UK, a group of retailers and packaging experts from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and academia have come together to examine the practicality of collecting, sorting and treating compostable packaging through existing bio-waste collection and treatment routes.
The Compostable Coalition’s advisory board includes Tesco, Marks & Spencer, WWF and the non-profit On-Pack Recycling Label. The two-year project was granted 1.2 million pounds in funding by government agency Innovate UK in September 2022, and will feed back the findings of its work direct to government.
Despite the complexities, there is increasing recognition of bioplastics in policy globally. In the U.S., president Joe Biden in March announced a target to replace 90% of plastics with biomaterials within the next 20 years, building on a September executive order to boost the nation’s biomanufacturing industry.
In the EU, clarification on where bioplastics can be environmentally beneficial and how they should be designed, disposed of and recycled are included in a potential regulation on packaging waste, which is due to be finalised by the end of the year. The bioplastics sector could also be affected by initiatives under the Green Deal on sustainable products, green claims and the green taxonomy.
Marks & Spencer, Tesco, WWF and On-Pack Recycling Label are part of The Compostable Coalition’s advisory board. REUTERS/Toby Melville
Meanwhile, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in December 2021 recommended the replacement of non-biodegradable, conventional polymers with biodegradable, bio-based polymers for agricultural uses such as mulch films, fishing gear, tree guards and shelters, and plant support twines.
Bioplastics Europe is pushing for the role of bioplastics to be recognised through the Global Treaty to End Plastic Pollution, currently under negotiation. A paper produced by the United Nations Environment Programme to inform potential content of the treaty includes an option encouraging the use of “safe, sustainable substitutes and alternatives to traditional plastics, such as alternative materials and biodegradable or compostable materials”.
These could reduce the health risks associated with plastic pollution and promote circularity in the plastics industry, as well as promote innovation and open new sustainable market opportunities, it states.
However, Paula Chin, senior policy advisor on consumption at WWF-UK, believes that ultimately, the priority for business and governments should be on reduction and reuse of packaging, rather than switching one material for another, bio-based or not.
“There’s still all this switching activity going on as they try to just kick into the long grass the challenge of transforming our retail systems to support more reuse or refill systems.
“There's policy initiatives looking at how can biomaterials play a role within a circular economy, but I think talking about reuse and how that can be enabled and mainstreamed has more than caught up with that.”
