Ireland: Food packaging and food service applications offer the best opportunities for compostable plastics. As an increasing number of athletic stadiums, airports, theme parks, campuses, and municipal venues adopt zero waste policies, demand will grow for biodegradable food packaging and service ware that can be disposed and composted along with organic waste.

The 96-cavity hot-runner mold was designed and built by Plastisud in Castelnaudary, France with U.S. manufacturing in Kentucky, specializing in high-volume precision molds for the packaging, closures and medical markets.

Multi-cavitation molds for running high-volume cap and closure production can be very fast systems. Now, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag together with its partners, Total and Plastisud, has set a new world record in the production of HDPE caps with tamper-evident band without post-molding operations, according to information from Total, headquartered in France, with more than 150 locations for specialty chemicals worldwide.

Ireland: Currently packaging only makes up a small percent of our current market; however, we see this increasing in the coming years. We’re currently engaged in material trials with several packaging companies involving really interesting projects, but NDAs prevent us from sharing more information at this time.

The first two may have been true for the first generation of bioplastics, but now we can formulate bio-based and/or biodegradable plastics that meet or exceed the physical properties of traditional petroleum-based plastics.

The fact that bioplastics aren’t searching for new markets and instead are replacing traditional plastics in the markets they already serve means there isn’t much blocking their path.

Bioplastics are the key component to bringing the plastics industry out of a wasteful linear economy and into the circular economy. Their increased use will yield positive results, not only in environmental and economic instances, but also functional impacts.

Total HDPE HD 6081 (d = 0.960 g/cm3, M12 = 8 g/10 min), dedicated to still (non-carbonated) water application, has proved at Sumitomo Demag to be the best HDPE resin capable of achieving the fastest crystallization, thus reducing demolding time between shots while giving optimized mechanical parts.

A Total spokesperson told PlasticsToday that Sumitomo (SHI) Demag and Plastisud had previously worked together during the K show, achieving 2.1 sec of cycle time, which was the fastest production until Chinaplas 2014, where Sumitomo (SHI) Demag set the new world record at 1.9 sec.

Ireland: We are currently trialing several formulations for compostable films that we believe will offer superior strength and puncture resistance along with biodegradability in either an industrial or home-composting environment.

Ireland: Green Dot Bioplastics was started in 2011 to commercialize the market’s first compostable elastomeric bioplastic, Terratek Flex. In 2013 the company acquired the bioplastic division of MGP Ingredients (MGPI), and now offers a full-line of bio-based and biodegradable bioplastics and biocomposites.

Rick Lingle is Senior Technical Editor, Packaging Digest and PlasticsToday. He’s been a packaging media journalist since 1985 specializing in food, beverage and plastic markets. He has a chemistry degree from Clarke College and has worked in food industry R&D for Standard Brands/Nabisco and the R.T. French Co. Reach him at [email protected] or 630-481-1426.

"This collaboration with Sumitomo Demag is one additional example of Total competitiveness and commitment to the Caps & Closures market, where total as the new challenger, brings to the industry optimized resins fulfilling the highest requirements providing benefits to the complete value chain," said Gabriela Quevedo Silvetti, market development engineer rigid packaging at Total.

This newest system can produce 190,000 caps per hour and 1.5 billion per year. The El-Exis SP 420-3000 packaging machine produces 1.3g HDPE screw caps on a 96-cavity hot runner mold (29/25 design) with a production cycle of only 1.9 seconds. This machine is equipped with a 25:1 L/D ratio barrier screw and has been designed with a special backflow barrier to improve reproducibility.

Company making moves into bioplastic packaging discusses its products, market opportunities and common misconceptions of bio-based materials by customers, brand owners and consumers.

Ireland: Plastics processors often assume that the materials will be difficult to process. Like any new material temperatures and cycle-times will need to be dialed in to optimize production, but generally this is easily accomplished.

Until she retired in September 2021, Clare Goldsberry reported on the plastics industry for more than 30 years. In addition to the 10,000+ articles she has written, by her own estimation, she is the author of several books, including The Business of Injection Molding: How to succeed as a custom molder and Purchasing Injection Molds: A buyers guide. Goldsberry is a member of the Plastics Pioneers Association. She reflected on her long career in "Time to Say Good-Bye."

Multi-cavitation molds for running high-volume cap and closure production can be very fast systems. Now, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag together with its partners, Total and Plastisud, has set a new world record in the production of HDPE caps with tamper-evident band without post-molding operations, according to information from Total, headquartered in France, with more than 150 locations for specialty chemicals worldwide. Total's refining & chemicals division produces and commercializes a wide range of products from petroleum products to commodity polymers including base chemicals and intermediates.

"Looking actively to improve this result, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag tested several HDPE resins from the market dedicated to caps and closures, and this is where Total made the difference with HDPE HD6081, resins that provided the best results in terms of part quality at lower cycle time (1.9 sec)," the spokesperson said. "So given the fact of sharing the same commercial strategy and objectives, providing excellent technology and know-how from each parties, and achieving results in the right direction, it was very natural to collaborate all together."

According to Arnaud Nomblot, business development manager of packaging at Sumitomo (SHI) Demag, "Total's know-how in the field of materials for caps has greatly contributed to this success. The material provides a vital common goal of Sumitomo Demag, Total and partners was to achieve highest product quality with significantly reduced cycle times. The technical breakthrough was made possible thanks to the excellent flow characteristics of the HD6081 material. A cycle time of 1.9 second and perfect injection point quality are the result of optimum combined material, machine and mold performance."

Ireland: We believe that increased consumer demand for more sustainable packaging options along with the proliferation of municipal government regulations and incentives have created tremendous growth opportunities for both bio-based and biodegradable packaging in the U.S.

Green Dot Bioplastics (Cottonwood Falls, KS) recently published an informative blog written by the company’s communications manager, Kevin Ireland, entitled What growth in the bioplastics industry means for investors and the economy. Some highlights:

Whether it’s made with renewable, reclaimed, recycled or biodegradable feedstocks, brand owners need to understand their own sustainability goals and educate their consumers so that they understand why and how the product or packaging is more sustainable.

Ireland: Our Terratek Flex compostable elastomers can be used to modify more rigid biodegradable plastics like polylactic acid (PLA) and thermoplastic starch (TPS) for better heat/cold tolerance as well as making them less brittle.

Ireland: Cost will always be a driver for packaging materials. Bioplastics will be successful in applications where it provides a functional advantage over traditional plastics. It can’t just be “greener,” it has to perform better.

The third misconception is more difficult. Biodegradable plastics are best used for applications where they will be disposed and composted along with organic waste. These plastics should not be viewed as a panacea for the plastic pollution that inundates our landscapes, water ways and oceans.

The fast cycle time results on one hand, from the combination of optimized mold dynamics by Sumitomo Demag's unique independent hybrid clamp system and optimized injection and plasticizing performance. On the other hand, this achievement has been made possible through the close co-operation between packaging partners, including Total, who has contributed their expertise in polyolefin resins for the caps & closures industry.

Grand View Research (San Francisco) reported that bioplastics had less than a 2% share of the plastics industry in 2015, but forecasting a 5% market share of the total plastics market by 2020 and a 40% share by 2030, making bioplastics a $324 billion-dollar enterprise in just over a decade (shown in chart above).

Go west to explore packaging, plastics and more February 6-8, 2018, during WestPack that’s co-located with PLASTEC West in Anaheim, CA. For more information, visit the WestPack website.