Ingeo News: March 2021

Designing High Performance Compostable Coffee Capsules with Ingeo

If you missed our well-attended webinar, “Designing High Performance Compostable Coffee Capsules with Ingeo for the EU Market”, the video is now available. Compostable coffee capsule industry and design experts, Viviana Conti and Flavio Di Marcotullio talk market growth, specifics on capsule design, and how they use a proprietary Data Acquisition System (DAQ) for measuring and understanding brewing performance.

HOW TO: Thermoforming Compostable Coffee Pods with Ingeo

If you’ve wondered how compostable coffee pods are formed, walk through this 2-step process for thermoforming K-Cup compatible pods made with Ingeo. NatureWorks’ Applications Engineer, Donavon Kirschbaum, explains the details of each step at the NatureWorks Applications Development Facility.



Deutsche Welle’s Planet A asks: Are bioplastics REALLY better for the planet?

Deutsche Welle’s Planet A aims to explore a shift toward an eco-friendly world and challenge what dealing with climate change really means. Reporter Kiyo Dörrer included NatureWorks’ Global Marketing and Communications Manager, Leah M. Ford in her recent story, Are bioplastics REALLY better for the planet?

"Packaging that has food waste inside of it or has touched food waste, does not get recycled. So the best way to handle that type of product is through composting." - Leah M. Ford. Watch the video.

SET wins Large Scale Compost Manufacturer of the Year

Minnesota compost manufacturer, Specialized Environmental Technologies (SET) The Mulch Store, was recently awarded the Large-Scale Composter of the Year Award from the US Composting Council. The winner of this award processes a throughput of over 10,000 tons per year and has displayed excellence in both compost production and marketing/distribution.

SET is the largest processor of organics in Minnesota and has been a key partner in growing source separated organics composting programs in Minneapolis and throughout the Twin Cities. In fact, in 2018, SET processed over 19,000 tons of source separated organics into compost.

Read more about SET’s work with the City of Minneapolis on their award-winning residential organics collection program.

VIDEO: USCC awards SET



PARTNER UPDATES

3D Printing

Polymaker Launches PolyTerra™, a New Ingeo-Based Filament
Longtime partner, Polymaker, just released their latest Ingeo-based 3D printing filament, PolyTerra™ PLA. The new filament allows faster printing, easy support removal, and has a smooth surface finish. PolyTerra™ PLA joins their other high performance Ingeo-based PLA offerings including PolyLite™ PLA and PolyMax™ PLA.


Food Serviceware

Eco-Products
Minnesota non-profit, Open Arms, recently featured their use of our partner, Eco-Products’ compostable food serviceware. Open Arms cooks and delivers free, nutritious meals to people living with life-threatening issues in the Twin Cities area. In their kitchen, the attention to composting for waste diversion and the education for staff, volunteers, and clients is amazing. The program not only works to divert food waste to composting, but also makes use of the finished compost in their Open Farms program where they transform underutilized urban spaces into gardens for growing healthy foods that nourish the community. Watch the video.


NATUREWORKS & INDUSTRY NEWS

UPCOMING EVENTS

AMI Single-Serve Capsules | March 9 - 11 | Virtual Summit
NatureWorks' Flavio Di Marcotullio will present, “The surge of compostable capsules & pods explained - and why there is no turning back” on March 11th.



TAPPI International Flexible Packaging & Extrusion Division | March 17 | Virtual Event
NatureWorks’ Applications Development Engineer, Andrea Auchter, will present the TAPPI Featured Paper she wrote with Nicole Whiteman and others, "Rethinking the Paper Cup - Beginning with Extrusion Process Optimization for Compostability and Recyclability".

We're Growing!

Join a fast-growing, ever-evolving team of professionals. Join NatureWorks!

Available Job Opportunities:

ERP Implementation Manager | Minnetonka, MN
Responsible for managing and providing expert-level project management for our SAP implementation project for current operations, ongoing SAP enhancements, and supporting projects that integrate with our SAP environment. Candidate will be responsible for working across functional teams and working closely with our SAP implementation partner(s). Expect to provide overall, day-to-day management of tasks and resources needed to satisfy the business requirements efficiently and in a readily upgradeable environment.

Maintenance & Reliability Engineer | Blair, NE
Responsible for the implementation of the facility reliability and maintenance strategy - provide technical expertise, ensure maintainability of new equipment installations, and identify and correct chronic and costly equipment problems though Root Cause Analysis (RCA). This role will focus on reliability of the plant on a short-term outlook by improving procedures; optimizing maintenance strategies; responsible for all predictive maintenance results; optimizing preventative maintenance tasks. This role also provides technical advice to the maintenance and plant staff and provides engineer support for plant issues impacting production over a short period of time. 


Keep up with ALL of our available job opportunities on our Careers page.