Issue 05/2015

Award
MHG Meredia Holdings Group (USA)
First biodegradable fishing lures
MHG strives to create a greener
tomorrow with renewable, sustainable,
biodegradable, and toxin free bioplastics
for people at work and at home. MHG’s
biopolymer resins have helped create a
healthier product marketplace for over
a decade.
MHG recently presented the first
ever certified biodegradable freshwater
fishing lure, which is being produced by
the famous tackle company, Bill Lewis
Lures, the maker of Rat‐L‐Trap. The
new Rat‐L‐Traps is made out of pure
MHG PHA bioplastic.
“Fishing is a seventy three billion
dollar industry and the freshwater
division makes up eighty two percent of
it,” remarked Paul Pereira, CEO of MHG.
“Partnering with Rat‐L‐Trap to make
these popular lures in a biodegradable
form is a big step in reducing plastic
pollution produced by the fishing
industry.”
In addition to performance, there has
been positive feedback regarding the
pilot production of the PHA Rat‐L‐Traps,
including its ability to weld together
better than the traditional plastic that’s
been used. There have been no known
production complications to date. “The
PHA has a lot of potential and I am
very excited about what we’ve seen so
far,” stated Wes Higgins, President of
Bill Lewis Lures, the company who
produces Rat‐L‐Traps. “I’m honored to
have our name associated with research
that could lead to conservation of our
fishing resources.”
Bill Lewis Lures is the producer of the
Original Rat‐L‐Trap lipless crankbait.
The Rat‐L‐Trap has been referred to as
“The Most Influential Fishing Lure” of
all time in Outdoor Life’s Hall of Fame
Fishing Lures article.
www.mhgbio.com
Mitsubishi
Chemical Corp. and Sharp Corp. (Japan)
Crack resistant bio‐based
plastic smartphone screen
Sharp Corporation (Osaka, Japan)
has chosen Mitsubishi Chemical’
(MCC) biobased engineering plastic
DURABIO for the front panel of its new
smartphone, the AQUOS CRYSTAL 2. The
choice marks a world‐first as bio‐based
engineering plastic has ever been used
on the front panel of any smartphone.
Most front panels of smartphones are
made of glass, and their susceptibility to
cracking has been an ongoing problem.
This has led manufacturers to consider
polycarbonate and other plastics for the
front panels because of their light weight
and increased durability compared to
glass. Unfortunately, some traditionally
available plastics offered excellent optical
properties, but were more prone to
cracking upon impact, while others that
were impact‐resistant tended to have poor
optical properties. Therefore, as there was
a need for considerable improvement
in the plastics, the vast majority of
smartphone manufacturers relied on
glass for the front panels of their phones.
MCC‐developed Durabio is a biobased
engineering plastic made from
plant‐derived isosorbide, which features
excellent performance as it offers higher
resistance to impact, heat, and weather
than conventional engineering plastics.
In addition, it has excellent transparency
and low optical distortion.
Conventional Polycarbonate is crackresistant
but not scratch resistant,
whereas PMMA is scratch resistant but
not crack‐resistant. Durabio is both
scratch resistant and crack‐resistant
and it has no yellowing (aging) effect,
like conventional plastics
This application shows that this
bioplastic offers superior performance
characteristics for a durable application
in addition to its renewable source.
www.m‐kagaku.co.jp
A. Schulman Castellon (Spain)
A novel bioresin for compostable
flexible tubes in cosmetics
A. Schulman, together with the
consortium of companies formed by
Germaine de Capuccini, Petroplast,
and the Ainia‐Aimplas alliance, has
successfully developed the first
biodegradable flexible tube for cosmetic
products. In particular, the A. Schulman’s
R&D team suceeded in finding the
appropriate compostable material to
replace conventional polyethylene in
flexible packaging tubes for cosmetics.
The new bioresin is a reinforced
biopolymers alloy, obtained by reactive
extrusion, which can be particularly
processed into a tube using conventional
extrusion blow moulding equipment.
The new bioresin was produced by
reactive extrusion using a blend of
commercially available biopolymers in
A. Schulman compounding facilities.
This mainly includes PLA, PBAT, PHAs,
and PBS. Twin‐screw extrusion was the
methodology to prepare the bioresin
as it represents an ideal compounding
strategy for the preparation of polymer
blends, since it delivers more mixing
and dispersion energy than is provided
by conventional single‐screw extruders.
The new biodegradable packaging
meets the main requirements of the
materials frequently used in flexible tubes
manufactured for the cosmetic industry:
• Presents sufficient flexibility to facilitate
product dosage (squeeze tubes).
• Preserves the properties of beauty
products for over two years
• Offers chemical resistance and compatibility
with the packaged product
• Can be processed by extrusion blow
molding (tube) and injection molding
(caps)
• Sealing stability over time and suitable
for printing
www.aschulman.com
bioplastics MAGAZINE [05/15] Vol. 10 11