Glob­al bioplastics pro­duc­tion capa­cit­ies con­tin­ue to grow des­pite low oil price

The res­ults of European Bioplastics’ annu­al mar­ket data update, presen­ted at the begin­ning of Novem­ber at the 10^th European Bioplastics Con­fer­ence in Ber­lin, con­firm the pos­it­ive growth trend of the glob­al bioplastics industry. ​“The mar­ket is pre­dicted to grow by more than 350 per­cent in the mid-term,” says François de Bie, Chair­man of European Bioplastics. The data com­piled in cooper­a­tion with the research insti­tutes IfBB – Insti­tute for Bioplastics and Biocom­pos­ites (Uni­ver­sity of Applied Sci­ences and Arts Han­nov­er, Ger­many) and nova-Insti­tute (Hürth, Ger­many) shows that the glob­al bioplastics pro­duc­tion capa­city is set to increase from around 1.7 mil­lion tonnes in 2014 to approx­im­ately 7.8 mil­lion tonnes in 2019. Biobased, non-bio­de­grad­able plastics, such as biobased PE and biobased PET, are the main drivers of this growth. More than 60 per­cent of the bioplastics pro­duc­tion capa­city world­wide in 2014 was biobased, dur­able plastics. This share will increase to over 80 per­cent in 2019. Pro­duc­tion capa­cit­ies of bio­de­grad­able plastics, such as PLA, PHA, and starch blends, are also grow­ing stead­ily, nearly doub­ling from 0.7 mil­lion tonnes in 2014 to well over 1.2 mil­lion tonnes in 2019. PHA pro­duc­tion will double by 2019 com­pared to 2014, due to a ramp-up of old and new capa­cit­ies in Asia and the USA. ​“It seems that com­postable plastics are mov­ing from niche to main­stream and many com­postable plastics have found their true added value applic­a­tions,” explains de Bie. Pack­aging remains the single largest field of applic­a­tion for bioplastics with almost 70 per­cent (1.2 mil­lion tonnes) of the total bioplastics mar­ket. Due to the excel­lent fit of bioplastics in the pack­aging mar­ket, this num­ber is expec­ted to increase to more than 80 per­cent (6.5 mil­lion tonnes) in 2019. ​“The data illus­trates an import­ant trend to make pack­aging more resource effi­cient, which is driv­en by a grow­ing con­sumer demand for products with a reduced envir­on­ment­al impact,” explains de Bie. The data also con­firms a decis­ive increase in the uptake of bioplastics mater­i­als in many oth­er sec­tors, includ­ing tex­tiles, auto­mot­ive applic­a­tions, and con­sumer goods. The land used to grow the renew­able feed­stock for the pro­duc­tion of bioplastics amoun­ted to approx­im­ately 0.68 mil­lion hec­tares in 2014, which accoun­ted for only 0.01 per­cent of the glob­al agri­cul­tur­al area of 5 bil­lion hec­tares, 97 per­cent of which were used for pas­ture, feed, food, oth­er mater­i­al uses, bioen­ergy, and bio­fuels. This clearly shows that there is no com­pet­i­tion between the renew­able feed­stock for food, feed, and the pro­duc­tion of bioplastics. With a view to region­al capa­city devel­op­ment, Asia will fur­ther expand its role as major pro­duc­tion hub. In 2019, more than 80 per­cent of bioplastics will be pro­duced in Asia. Europe will be left with less then 5 per­cent of the pro­duc­tion capa­cit­ies. Where­as coun­tries such as the USA, Asia, and Lat­in Amer­ica are imple­ment­ing close-to-mar­ket meas­ures to attract pro­duc­tion hubs and pro­mote faster mar­ket devel­op­ment, the European mar­ket for bioplastics is lim­ited by the lack of eco­nom­ic and policy meas­ures to allow for a lar­ger scale-up of pro­duc­tion capa­cit­ies with­in Europe. ​“Against this back­ground, the imple­ment­a­tion of a European policy frame­work that secures equal access to biobased resources, cre­ates meas­ures to facil­it­ate mar­ket entry for biobased products, and accounts for the facil­it­at­ing role of com­postable plastics for effi­cient waste stream man­age­ment, is of para­mount import­ance. We urge EU legis­lat­ors to con­sider and make effi­cient use of the immense envir­on­ment­al, eco­nom­ic growth and job cre­ation poten­tial of our industry in the forth­com­ing Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy Pack­age,” con­cludes de Bie.

About European Bioplastics

European Bioplastics is the European asso­ci­ation rep­res­ent­ing the interests of the bioplastics industry along the entire value chain. Its mem­bers pro­duce, refine and dis­trib­ute bioplastics i.e. plastics that are biobased, bio­de­grad­able, or both. More inform­a­tion is avail­able at www​.european​-bioplastics​.org.

About Insti­tute for Bioplastics and Biocom­pos­ites (IfBB)

IfBB’s research focuses on the devel­op­ment, pro­cessing, indus­tri­al usage, end of life scen­ari­os, and eco­lo­gic­al and tech­nic­al eval­u­ation of bioplastics and biocom­pos­ites. The sci­entif­ic and prac­tice-ori­ented approach of the IfBB often in close col­lab­or­a­tion with the industry is an asset to engin­eer­ing edu­ca­tion and com­pre­hens­ive bioplastic research. The IfBB offers a large range of bioplastic data like pro­cessing routes, feed­stock require­ments, land use and much more mar­ket data. All the inform­a­tion and down­load­able fig­ures are avail­able free of charge at www​.down​loads​.ifbb​-han​nov​er​.de.

About nova-Insti­tute

Foun­ded in 1994, the nova-Insti­tute is a renowned spar­ring part­ner for industry as well as pub­lic and policy insti­tu­tions at European level. The data excerpt of European Bioplastics only cov­ers nov­el biobased and/​or bio­de­grad­able plastics and is part of a com­pre­hens­ive mar­ket study with a lar­ger scope, the third edi­tion of which is pub­lished by the nova-Insti­tute in Novem­ber 2015. More inform­a­tion is avail­able at www​.bio​-based​.eu/​m​a​rkets. Source: European Bioplastics e.V.