Ingeo News: June 2023
In today’s Ingeo News:
Top 3 Industry Trends
By Matt Romberger, VP of Sales and Marketing, NatureWorks
Halfway through 2023 we’re seeing brands, NGOs, and governments evaluate the sustainability of plastics against multiple criteria including carbon impact, biobased content, health and safety, and the ability to be recycled or composted. Let’s explore some of the top trends driving interest in biomaterials and how we see them accelerating growth in the market.
1. Adoption of Biobased Content
A long declared tenant of a circular economy is to decouple materials from the use of fossil feedstocks. With over 381 million metric tons of plastic produced annually, implementing this tenant continues to be a challenging journey. The use of biopolymers made from annually renewable resources can be a key driver in reducing the use of non-renewable, petrochemical plastics while also helping companies achieve their ambitious carbon footprint reduction targets especially as biopolymers like Ingeo PLA an average carbon footprint 73% smaller than plastics made from fossil resources.
2. Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Reductions of Food Waste Diversion to Compost
A recent study published by the EPA noted the growing amount of food waste generated in the US and how, at 21.6%, it is the single largest component of the municipal solid waste (MSW) disposed of in landfills. Diverting food waste to compost can have an impact on climate change, as more than 15% of total U.S. human-caused methane emissions come from landfills. The report also notes that if we divert 25% more food waste to compost, we can reduce associated greenhouse gas emissions by 30%. Compostable packaging is increasingly used to help increase food waste diversion rates and have a measurable impact on methane emissions reduction.
3. Safety of Materials
The evolution to more sustainable materials for packaging has put a spotlight on evaluating impacts to people as well as the environment. New certifications like GreenScreen set a safety standard for products like food serviceware ensuring they do not contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) plus thousands of other chemicals of concern that are known for negative impacts to human health. The certification is designed for use by governments, companies, and certification standards to encourage the design and use of inherently safer chemical ingredients. Certifiers of compostable products have, in fact, already adopted bans on products made using PFAS in order to protect the safety of finished compost.
We continue to see the demand for safe, low carbon, biobased products rapidly increase. To meet the market interest, we have expanded production capacity at our Blair, NE plant, and we’re in the process of building a new fully integrated plant in Thailand. The potential for growth is exciting, and we look forward to sharing some new applications that we have been working on to help the market capitalize on these trends.
A Big Idea
Ingeo PLA in the first 100% biobased BioHome3D
This project was a hub and spoke program by the University of Maine Advanced Structures and Composites Center, Oak Ridge National Labs, and NatureWorks.
Click of the Month
A WIN for composting industry in Minnesota
Mislabeled food service items and bags are the most common contaminants ending up at composting facilities. The Minnesota Composting Council helped reintroduce the Environment & Natural Resources Omnibus bill for the 2023 legislative session and Gov. Waltz signed it. The MN Stat. 325E.046 Standards for Labeling Plastics Bags will apply to food serviceware and other packaging claiming compostability.
Quick Hits
What We're Reading
Jabil Elevates Materials Sustainability with Introduction oF PLA 3110P Powder Based on NatureWorks’ Ingeo Biopolymer, Jabil.com
Uber Eats offers restaurants $10k grants to switch to more sustainable packaging, Packaging Dive
Minnesota alleges Reynolds, Walmart falsely advertised waste bags as recyclable, Star Tribune
Ingeo News - May 2023
Recent Events
Upcoming Events
NatureWorks is a Sustainability Sponsor of this event for a third consecutive year.
Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology Annual Meeting | July 30 - August 2, 2023 | Minneapolis, MN
NatureWorks Interim CEO, Jill Zullo, will speak at this event.