BASF's biodegradable plastic: from paper cups to packaging

The world's leading chemical company BASF said it has added a new biodegradable plastic to its existing Ecovio product line.

The Ludwigshafen, Germany-based (ETR:BAS) company said the plastic has specific applications in coating paper and for manufacturing so-called shrink films, which are used to wrap packaged goods. The products have been branded as Ecovio FS Paper and Ecovio FS Shrink Film.

“In order to obtain effective paper coatings, a film made of the new Ecovio FS Paper has to be easy to process and exhibit good adhesion to the paper, even when applied in thin layers. Such coatings are used, for example, on paper cups or cardboard boxes,” said BASF’s Gabriel Skupin, in a news release. Skupin heads the company’s technical product development for biodegradable plastics.

The products mark a company effort to be more specialized with its offerings for specific market segments. The plastic—made of biodegradable polyester and polylactic acid extracted from corn starch—also biodegrades more rapidly than its predecessors and has a higher content of renewable raw materials, BASF said.

The product was shown this month for the first time to a technical audience at this year’s conference of the European Bioplastics Association. The company claims initial production testing with customers has gone successfully.

With sample material now available, BASF said the product is expected to be introduced to the market in the first quarter of 2010.

Earlier this year, Metabolix and Archer Daniels Midland developed a next-generation injection molding bioplastic that’s biodegradable (see New bioplastic from Metabolix and ADM is biodegradable).

And China-based BDP Green Technology specializes in biodegradable plastic bags, with applications everywhere from grocery stores to hospitals (see BDP bags up bioplastics for biodegradable alternative).

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