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Home > News & Events > Press Releases > 2007 > October 16, 2007 - Cards
October 16, 2007 - Transforming Plastic Transactions: a Significant Environmental Step Change is Made Real with NatureWorks® Biop
In just two short years NatureWorks® biopolymer, a revolutionary new transaction card material, has been transforming the plastic cards industry. Today, a credible and critical mass of leaders in this industry are offering NatureWorks® biopolymer-based cards to their customers.
This represents a significant environmental change for an industry that issues more than 15 billion cards each year in a 9 billion dollar business growing at a rate of more than 10% year per year.
The NatureWorks® biopolymer innovation is made by NatureWorks LLC, a company which, with its launch in 1997, became the first in the world to supply a family of commercially available low-carbon footprint biopolymers derived from annually renewable resources with performance and economics that compete with oil-based plastics and fibers.
NatureWorks LLC applies its technology and expertise to process natural plant sugars to make its unique NatureWorks® biopolymer.
With the original launch at the 2005 Pack Expo in Las Vegas and CARTES in Paris, NatureWorks® biopolymer-based cards saw immediate adoption in gift card applications with Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and Aveda. The NatureWorks® biopolymer cards provide a real alternative to current PVC, PET, OPS and paper cards made from a non-crude oil derived, more responsible, plant sugar-based alternative. These cards can be printed and magnetically encoded and the NatureWorks® biopolymer based film can be used as a laminate and film carrier for the magnetic strip.
Since the initial innovation spearheaded by Arthur Blank & Company, Inc. and UV Color Inc, the field has quickly broadened. Now additional partners in the US, Canada, and soon in Europe, are joining with NatureWorks LLC in their mission to provide brand owners, retailers and consumers with this more responsible, innovative technology for their gift and loyalty card offerings. With a breadth of the NatureWorks supply chain partners now in place, the application is becoming more ubiquitous, with current brand and retailer use that includes Staples, Chipotle, Publix Apple, LL Bean, Wal-Mart, Wild Oats, Woolworth’s and Aveda with applications broadening beyond gift cards and loyalty cards to secure applications such as telephone, and most recently, transaction cards.
Jake Jacobs, Arthur Blank & Co.’s Senior Vice President for Sales & Marketing, notes: "Arthur Blank & Co. is committed to our Green Line of products of which NatureWorks® represents a strong foundational partner. We believe this NatureWorks® biopolymer CornCard is a strong environmental alternative for our customers looking to move away from traditional PVC products".
In addition to Arthur Blank and UV Color, the field of leaders offering this newest innovation has now broadened to include Versatile Card Technology, Perfect Plastic Printing, Meyers, Travel Tags and Jet in the US and two Canadian manufacturers - All Cards Ltd. and Colourfast Each of these NatureWorks licensees has a commitment to satisfying their customer demands for a better choice in plastic consumables, motivated by consumer concerns for the environment.
All these new cards are possible thanks to the consistent research and technical advancement of the NatureWorks® biopolymer sheet suppliers - BI-AX, Spartech and Transilwrap - who have each developed their own NatureWorks® composite bioplastic sheet technology to match the required performance for card manufacture.
NatureWorks LLC is proud to provide the first step in achieving a more sustainable card offering, not only in North America today, but also for the rest of the world tomorrow. Card production is a layered technology and NatureWorks® biopolymer allows manufacturers to eliminate their prior reliance on PVC. This technology allows many cards to replace as much as 90% of their finite fossil fuel-based plastic content with NatureWorks biopolymer. And with the company’s commitment to research and technology development, better solutions are already in the pipeline to guarantee even more responsible product innovations to meet the growing global demand in plastic transaction cards.
This new NatureWorks® biopolymer application represents the first step on the journey to achieving more responsible and renewable plastic card products and offers consumers a real and better alternative. Made from plants instead of oil, it helps reduce the use of conventional PVC and in the process, produces less greenhouse gas emissions and uses fossil fuel in overall production.
Finally, NatureWorks LLC is also a consumer-aware organization and as such is actively supporting all its brand partners and retailers with a dedicated marketing and communication program. This plan will see the launch of its sister brand, Ingeo™, which will be the company’s brand of choice for all new innovative consumer lifestyle products made only from its NatureWorks® biopolymer. Look out for more Ingeo™ innovations in the coming months.
And for contact information and product with partners currently using NatureWorks® biopolymer today see below -
CARDS made from Ingeo™, made with NatureWorks® biopolymer
• UV Color (MN) - at jkeister@uvcolor.com
• Arthur Blank (MA) - at JJacobs@ABCO.com
• Meyers (MN) - at kent_madson@meyers.com
• Jet (IL) - at dominica@jetlitho.com
• Colourfast (CAN) - at Mary@Colourfast.com
• Travel Tags (MN) - at DMGilbert@traveltags.com
• All Cards Limited (CAN) - at mark@allcard.ca
• Perfect Plastic Printing (IL) - at joanne@perfectplastic.com
• Versatile Card Technology (IL) - at sajit@vct.com
NON-FOOD SHEET/GRAPHIC ARTS /& OTHER
• Spartech (WI) - NatureWorks ® biopolymer sheet for cards, graphics and other end uses at Todd.Neimuth@spartech.com
• Transilwrap (OH./IN) – NatureWorks ® biopolymer sheet for cards, graphics and other end uses at heidi_zak@transilwrap.com
• BI-AX (CAN) – NatureWorks ® biopolymer sheet for cards, graphics, folding cartons and other end uses at bharrow@biaxinc.com
FILM PRODUCERS
• BI-AX - (CAN) at bharrow@biaxinc.com
• Plastic Suppliers (and Sidaplex) – OH / UK and BEL) at eichfeld@plasticsuppliers.com
• SKC Inc - (GA) at ybjo@skcfilms.com
Sustainable Packaging Hotel Key that NatureWorks LLC and DaniMer promoted in Pittsburgh, PA.
About NatureWorks LLC
NatureWorks LLC is dedicated to meeting the world’s needs today without compromising the earth’s ability to meet the needs of tomorrow, NatureWorks LLC is the first company to offer a family of commercially available low carbon footprint polymers derived from annually renewable resources with cost and performance that compete with petroleum-based plastics and fibers. The company applies its unique technology to the processing of natural plant sugars to create a proprietary polylactide polymer, which is marketed under the Ingeo™ brand name. NatureWorks LLC is a joint venture between Cargill and Teijin Limited of Japan.| For Editorial Information | | |
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