Issue 02/2019

Thermoforming / Rigid Packaging
By:
Grégory Coué
Technical Manager
Kompuestos
Palau Solità i Plegamans, Spain
home compostable materials that are able to withstand
high temperatures or with ultra-high barrier properties, as
well as that can meet the demands of the growing group of
consumers who are aware of the impact of their actions on
the environment.
Kompuestos is a Spanish company founded in 1986 in
Palau Solità i Plegamans near Barcelona. Over the past
three decades, Kompuestos has acquired an in-depth
knowledge of the market and has positioned itself as one
of the main international suppliers of a large variety of
masterbatches, all of which are intended to meet the needs
of very diverse markets in the plastics industry, among
which the packaging sector. With a production capacity of
over 170,000 tonnes per year and growing, Kompuestos
has established itself as one of the leading companies in
the sector, while still seeking to expand its business
horizons.
To meet the challenging requirements and the growing
demand for eco-friendly and sustainable plastic rigid
packaging solutions, Kompuestos plans to launch a range
of novel Biokomp grades containing Nuvolve. Designed
for thermoforming applications, these will provide high
temperature utility (e.g., for hot food and beverages) with
the enhanced biodegradability profile typically expected of
PLA-based resin systems under composting conditions.
This new combination of properties is being sustainable
material future. DuPont’s Nuvolve, a plant-based, renewably
sourced engineered polysaccharide, whose development
was inspired by nature, has been shown to be synergistic
in the biodegradability process as well as demonstrating
promising performance enhancements in products across
multiple markets and applications.
Work is ongoing to improve and strengthen the
functionalities of the developed products and to validate
their application in real working environments within the
food industry. This entails the development of disposable
To answer the demand for greener products,
Kompuestos has developed Biokomp, a family of
biodegradable and compostable resins made from different
starches and other biologically-sourced biodegradable
polymers. Several grades of Biokomp for film applications
have already been certified by TÜV Austria and have earned
the labels OK Compost Industrial, OK Compost Home and
Seedling Logo according to the requirements, specified by
EN 13432, the reference standard in terms of
compostability.
The company is looking forward to expanding its range of
compostable solutions through 2019. These products will
introduce a new sustainable option to the current
challenges of the plastic market and enable customers to
develop products that can be recycled at the end of life.
Biokomp represents a first essential step towards a
circular economy and a responsible production process, as
shown by a consistent striving to ensure quality and
optimal solutions down the whole value chain.
Kompuestos views the ‘circular economy’ as an
economic system that will replace the ‘end-of-life’ concept
with a system that calls for a reduction in material use,
alternatively followed by the reused, recycling and recovery
of materials in production/distribution and consumption
processes, with as aim to accomplish sustainable
development. This will simultaneously serve to create
environmental quality, economic prosperity and social
equity, to the benefit of current and future generations.
www.kompuestos.com | www.biosciences.dupont.com/biomaterials
bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/19] Vol. 14 15