A series of innovations
The main innovation is a thermoplastic resin, so called Gaïalène, made from non-food resources grown in France. This new generation of plastic [1] - obtained from starch and biosourced at a minimum rate of 50% - has characteristics similar to polyolefins. Its main interests are numerous : local farming, no GMO, recyclability, much better carbon footprint. The more oil prices increase, the more the over charge is reducing.
The Gaïalène resin can be used for extrusion blow moulded bottles and injected parts. It also allows manufacturing 40 micron thin shrink films for multi packing solutions [2].
The French chemicals industry, as in other major farming countries, is well advanced in terms of non-food vegetal technical valuation. France has one of the most advanced food-industry, in link with world class specialised industrial clusters [3] and research institutes [4]. The synergy between the food, the plastics industries [5] and the packaging sector, provides France with numerous assets and should help the country to play a leading role in this sector.
In the family of polyolefins, thermoplastic PE Green resins have been introduced into the cosmetic market in 2011, resins made from 100% cane sugar ethanol [6], which have identical mechanical and aesthetic properties than crude oil derived high density polyethylene.
Other thermoplastic resins, the so-called bio-PET, should be used soon in cosmetic packaging. Blended up to 20% or 30% with traditional plastics, these resins are already on the shelves for liquids such as water and soda bottles. Being only available from a restricted number of suppliers worldwide these materials address the marketing needs of brands willing to highlight their sustainable practices.
There are other advantages for packaging manufacturers: these new vegetal plastic materials do not change production rates, and tooling can be used in similar conditions.
What is the real impact?
Bio-sourced plastics have sometimes been controversial upon their ecological impact versus plastics derived from crude oil. At the moment when the test phase of environmental labelling is beginning in France, life cycle analysis (LCA) of bio-sourced materials should demonstrate their positive impact on the climate and the air, and on water and biodiversity.
During the 1st half of 2011,vegetal plastics have gathered much attention from packaging professionals during exhibitions such as PCD in Paris, SINAL in Châlons, INTERPACK in Düsseldorf and FIP in Lyon.
The Union of Chemical Industries’ objective for 2017 indicates that for France renewable resources should represent up to 15% of chemical specialties. An incentive for the cosmetics industry [7] to demonstrate their pioneering ability to make sustainability come true.
Resins derived from renewable botanical resources are likely to grow as a new category of green materials, thus opening large perspectives for the plastic packaging industry.
In the meantime, these new vegetal plastics should improve the image of cosmetics and beauty products in the mind of environmentally concerned consumers.
