INNOVATION
53recyclinginternational.com | September/October | 2019
Can Mother Nature play a part in plastic recycling?
then offer genuine end-of-life value
and this would reduce contamination
when other, more valuable plastics are
being recycled. Major costs for waste
managers and recyclers would there-
fore be avoided.
ELLEN MACARTHUR PARTNER
It’s an alternative promoted by
Novamont, one of the world’s leading
manufacturers of biodegradable, com-
postable bioplastics, and a ‘Core
Partner’ of the Ellen MacArthur
Foundation’s New Plastics Economy
initiative aimed at rethinking plastics
packaging systems globally.
‘Single-use packaging applications
such as films and trays made of com-
postable bioplastics for separate col-
lection with food waste could help to
make the traditional plastic waste
stream substantially cleaner and there-
fore more valuable,’ says Francesco
Degli Innocenti, director, ecology of
products with Novamont. ‘That’s
something PET recyclers would appre-
ciate when confronted with the grow-
ing degree of contamination by lower-
value plastics.’
BETTER FOR RECYCLING?
The wider use of biodegradable, com-
postable plastics concerns recyclers
and policy makers because of cross-
contamination; for example, when
non-biodegradable plastic scrap finds
its way into composting technologies.
The goal has to be for consumers and
businesses to separate plastic scrap
properly but, as we know, people put-
ting the right waste in the right place
is a challenge across all recycling sec-
tors. This article will not rehearse the
arguments in detail but it is about
how a 100%-owned Italian company,
has established an international trade
in offering low-carbon alternatives to
oil-based polymers. And with all the
attention on plastic pollution, it has
the research to back up its claim that
its products decompose in the sea
and on our beaches at similar rates to
paper if they end up as marine litter
(see box).
R&D PRIDE
Novamont, founded in 1990 and
headquartered in Italy, produced the
first biodegradable bag made from its
patented Mater-Bi polymer a year
later. It now boasts four production
plants and an annual turnover of EUR
223 million. There are sales offices in
Germany, France and the United
States and a representative office in
Brussels. The Italian workforce is 600
The facility produces 100 000 tonnes of Origo-Bi intermediate polyester.
Director Francesco Degli Innocenti: ‘Compostable bioplastics could help to make the
traditional plastic waste stream substantially cleaner.’
52-53-54-56-57_novamont.indd 53 30-09-19 16:59
