05 | 2010

K‘2010 Preview
A New Commercial Bioplastic Material
with Broad Performance Capabilities
Telles: Mirel bioplastics have made major strides forward this year. The
Clinton, Iowa, USA production facility is now in operation. Mirel is available
in a series of resin grades, including injection molding, thermoforming, film
(cast and blown), and sheet extrusion. Mirel is ideal for a wide variety of
applications, including single-use disposables; food service and packaging;
compost, yard waste, and retail bags; agriculture mulch films; horticulture
and marine products; and many consumer items. It is durable in use, shelfstable,
heat-resistant up to 120°C, moisture-resistant, tough, and tearresistant.
Mirel enables alternative waste management options including
anaerobic digestion, home composting, industrial composting, soil and
marine environments. Mirel offers biobased and biodegradable solutions
that can help to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills.
www.mirelplastics.com 05D10-6A
www.natureplast.eu 08bA30
Bioplastics Services
Natureplast specializes in supporting plastics converters or outsourcers who want to
develop and integrate products or packaging in bioplastic.
Their expertise is based on three complementary and inseparable activities to develop
a successful product :
• Natureplast has privileged access to all raw materials and additive bioplastics all over
the world. They are even able to recommend specifications on the material best suited
to the customer’s needs.
• If none of the biopolymers on the market today correspond to the client’s expectations,
Natureplast’s structure and network can set customized grades of material in order to
meet product and process constraints.
• Natureplast has also developed audit services, consulting and training to accompany
you on your whole project.
Beginning in 2011, Natureplast is proud to announce the opening of a laboratory
completely dedicated to bioplastic research and development (compounding, injection
moulding and characterisation). New grades of bioplastic will be developed to respond to
industrial needs.
New BioFoam Pallet
Besides their standard EPS and EPP materials Synbra will be
showcasing several items produced with their newly developed
BioFoam ® material. This material is an expanded PLA, 100% biobased
and biodegradable, and is C2C certified. BioFoam has comparable
properties with EPS and within certain limits all EPS parts could also
be made with this new material. Processing is done on traditional EPS
equipment, however as a blowing agent CO 2
is used, which makes the
processing a carbon neutral operation. At its end-of-life BioFoam can
be disposed of in all the traditional ways, but PLA has some additional
disposal options, namely industrial composting, anaerobic digestion
and feedstock recycling.
Wood/Biopolymer compound injection moulding demonstration
www.biofoam.nl 07.1B05
bioplastics MAGAZINE [05/10] Vol. 5 37