04 | 2010

New Series
Personality
In the last issue, bioplastics MAGAZINE started a new series of ‘Personality Interviews’. We want to introduce
well known personalities from the bioplastics industry from a slightly different point of view. We hope to provide
some information about these people that our readers most probably have not known before.
Catia Bastioli
bM: Dear Mrs. Bastioli, if I may ask, when and where were you
born?
CB: In October 1957 in Foligno, close to Perugia in the
center of Italy.
bM: Where do you live today?
CB: I live in Novara, in the Piedmont Region, Italy.
bM: What is your education?
CB: I have a degree in Pure Chemistry from Perugia
University and a diploma in Business Administration from
Bocconi University in Milan.
bM: What is your professional function today
CB: In addition of being the CEO of Novamont, I am a
Board Member in different public and private institutions
dealing with innovation. I also teach Biopolymers as Contract
Professor at the University of Eastern Piedmont Amedeo
Avogadro.
bM: How did you ‘come to’ bioplastics?
CB: In the late Eighties when I was a Project leader of
the strategic project ‘Composites’ in Donegani Institute,
Corporate Research Center of Montedison. The Company was
acquired by Ferruzzi group, a leading agroindustrial player in
Europe. The need to create a bridge between agroindustry
and chemistry brought the Group to establish a new reseach
center completely dedicated to renewable resources. I was
asked to deal with the strategic aspects and the creation of
an interdisciplinary team on Material Science starting from
the renewable materials and biomass available in Ferruzzi.
bM: What do you consider more important: ‘biobased‘ or
‘biodegradable‘?
CB: Both are of interest. Biobased is a more general concept,
it relates to the origin of a product and to the reduction of fossil
carbon; the assessment of the real environmental benefits of
a biobased product, however, requires a systemic approach
involving life cycle thinking. Biodegradability relates to the
end of life scenarios, it is an important property for short life
products, for products where recycling is difficult and has low
probability to happen or when plastics are contaminated with
organic waste such as food residues.
bM: What was your biggest achievement (in terms of
bioplastics) so far?
CB: I feel the biggest achievement up to now is to have
transformed the results of our technical research into
an industrial reality, involving a new interaction with the
agricultural world and the local areas. The biorefineries
dedicated to bioplastics and chemicals integrated into the
local areas from my point of view have a great potential with
relevant environmental,
economical and social
implications.
bM: What are your
biggest challenges for the
future ?
CB: To transform our Company, which evolved from a
research center, to a small/medium, up to a significant
size reality, into a worldwide player, interconnected with
other actors in a fast growing market, without loosing the
peculiarity of our initial approach. Meaning to use bioplastics
and bio-products as tools to build relevant cases of what I
call a system based economy, involving the local areas. My
dream is to bring a contribution to the valorisation of the
territories with their biodiversity and cultural heritages, in
terms of reindustrialization, competitiveness, quality jobs,
environmental attention. I mean an industry, able to put
human being and its environment in the centre.
bM: What is your family status?
CB: I’m not married and I have no children, but I have a
fantastic partner. We have been together since the time of
university.
bM: What is your favourite movie?
CB: I love movies, and my current favourite is Woody Allen’s
latest one ‘Whatever works’. I also liked a lot ‘Invictus’ on
Nelson Mandela.
bM: What is your favourite book?
CB: I read a lot of scientific literature, but I also like books.
Some of my current favourite ones, however, are ‘The periodic
System’ of the Jewish-Italian author (and chemist) Primo Levi.
‘One Thousand Splendid Suns’ of Khaled Hosseini and ‘The
Same and not the Same’ of the ‘Nobel Prize’ Winner Roald
Hoffman, on Chemistry.
bM: What is your favourite (or your next) vacation location?
CB: Whenever I can afford to take a few days off, I like to be
alone in nature...
bM: What do you eat for breakfast on a Sunday?
CB: I like boiled eggs, yoghurt and - if possible - different
types of berries.
bM: What is your ‘slogan’?
CB: I don’t like slogans. They transform people into
‘supporters’ like in football games reducing their ability to
go in depth and to be free.
bM: Thank you very much. MT
bioplastics MAGAZINE [04/10] Vol. 5 39