The annual output of the world’s plastics industry is about 225 million tonnes per year yet in 2011, bioplastics are likely to provide less than 1% of world plastics, according to a new whitepaper.
Reasons cited in the report for holding back bioplastics included that they are “generally two or three times more expensive than the major conventional plastics such as polyethylene or PET”. However, it went on to say that “this disadvantage will tend to diminish as bioplastics manufacturing plants become larger and benefit from economies of scale”.
It added that when biological feedstock is particularly cheap, as in Brazil, that large biopolyethylene plants may already be close to being cost competitive with oil-based alternatives.
The report, produced by Biome Bioplastics, tackled the controversial question asked over bioplastics - whether the growth of a material made from sugars and starches harvested from crops that otherwise might be grown for food, can be fully justified.
It said that for the 1 million tonnes of bioplastics produced annually, around 300,000 hectares are used to grow crops, or 0.02% of the world’s total naturally irrigated area available for cultivation.
“Even if half the world’s plastics were made from crops grown on food land, the industry would only required 3% of the world’s cultivated acreage,” it said.
For more information and to download a copy of the report, click here.
