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The environmental magazine’s tests reveal materials don’t completely break down in home compost piles.
PRWeb, Press Release, EarthTimes, April 13, 2010
Topeka, Kan. (Vocus) - With more companies marketing plant-based bioplastic packaging as “100-percent biodegradable,” Mother Earth News, the leading magazine dedicated to green living, put these claims to the test.
The result? In most cases, the magazine’s lab tests found that “biodegradable” or “compostable” plastics do not decompose in home compost piles. The report also concludes that some companies’ labeling claims are incomplete and misleading.
“While we applaud companies’ efforts to develop more sustainable packaging materials, they need to be upfront about what their products will and won’t do,” says Cheryl Long, editor in chief of Mother Earth News.
Mother Earth News commissioned Woods End Laboratories, an independent facility that specializes in evaluating composts, soils and organic wastes, to test five types of bioplastic shopping bags.
Researchers followed industry standards (ASTM D6400) and monitored the bags for 25 weeks in three scenarios: The team found that none of the bags were completely compostable in typical home composting conditions. Only one of the samples, Mater-Bi made by Novamont, was about halfway degraded after 25 weeks, while BioTuf and Bag-To-Nature brands did well only at the higher temperatures found in commercial composting conditions. Oxo-Biodegradable, which had two samples in the study, didn’t break down at all in any of the scenarios.
The complete report and photos can be found online as well as featured in the June-July issue of Mother Earth News, on sale May 25.
About Mother Earth News
Mother Earth News (www.MotherEarthNews.com) is the Original Guide to Living Wisely. Launched in 1970, each bimonthly issue of Mother Earth News features practical and money-saving information on organic gardening; do-it-yourself projects; cutting energy costs; using renewable energy; green home building and remodeling; rural living; and conscientious, self-sufficient lifestyles.
About Ogden Publications
Ogden Publications Inc. (www.OgdenPubs.com) is the leading information resource serving the sustainable living, rural lifestyle, farm memorabilia and classic motorcycle communities. Key brands include Mother Earth News, Natural Home, Utne Reader, Capper’s and Grit. Ogden Publications also provides insurance and financial services through its Capper’s Insurance Service division.
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Source : PRWeb
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Mother Earth News Finds Compostable Packaging Claims Half-Baked
Friday, January 8, 2010
Biodegradable plastics' 'green' association propels their growth, claims report
The green factor is triggering the growth of biodegradable plastics, particularly in the areas of consumer products and packaging, Frost & Sullivan reports.
By Anne Marie Mohan, GreenerPackage.com, Jan. 4, 2010
As biodegradable plastics fall under the "green" category, they exhibit high potential for growth compared to other thriving environment-friendly technologies in the renewable energy and chemicals segments. That’s the conclusion of new analysis from Frost & Sullivan, “Biodegradable Plastics—A Strategic Assessment of Technology Status and Application Prospects.”
The report indicates that opportunities are proliferating in key application areas such as packaging/plastic bags, agriculture, consumer goods, electronics, automotive, and healthcare. Growth in this sector occurs due to factors such as climate change, favorable governmental measures, and green procurement policies practiced by governments and corporate entities. Stringent environmental regulations are driving the development of bio-based products and are triggering the growth of the biodegradable plastics industry.
In the analysis, Frost & Sullivan finds that consumer products and packaging have emerged as the application sectors having the highest potential for biodegradable plastics. Analysis revealed that film packaging and rigid packaging scored the best in terms of level of attractiveness and possibility of success.
"Traditional packaging materials contain a range of oil-based polymers, which are largely nonbiodegradable," notes technical insights research analyst W.F. Kee. "Packaging waste forms a significant part of municipal solid waste and has caused increasing environmental concerns, resulting in strengthening of legislation in order to reduce packaging waste."
The report notes that with the ramping up of the attraction quotient in recent years, green products are clearly gaining advocates. “It has become increasingly fashionable for the public to support green products,” Frost & Sullivan says. “The popularity of hybrid cars and reusable bags is a good example. Eco-friendly products have been introduced in various sectors, including food, appliances, and cars. ”
Consumer interest in bio-based packaging is on the rise, the analysis relates. Public support for green products is partially responsible for the biodegradable plastics market growth, and this global trend is expected to continue, gathering steam in the future.
Challenges to growth
Although the overall prospects look bright, some issues have been reining in market progress, the report notes. Cost competitiveness is foremost among the challenges confronting the market. To circumvent this obstacle, proposed solutions include the use of cheaper feedstock, for instance, biomass-based feedstock, as well as an integrated process. Utilization of feedstock is very limited right now, Frost & Sullivan says, and the adoption of biomass-based feedstock will mostly be influenced by the development of improved biocatalysts.
Other concerns associated with biodegradable plastics are poor processability characteristics, low barrier properties toward air, water, and oxygen, low resistance to heat, and in some cases, low shelf life, the report states.
"The properties of traditional biodegradable polymers do not offer the essential mechanical properties and fail to match up to the needs of end-user application compared with conventional plastics," says Kee. "This acts as a barrier for the penetration of biodegradable packaging in high-end applications."
The report concludes that it is imperative that these impediments be addressed before biodegradable products can compete on an equal footing with conventional plastics.
Suggestions to improve properties include deploying enhanced blending technologies or developing composites. Blending studies are underway in the academic and corporate sectors, and efforts have been initiated for the development of bio- and nanocomposites, Frost & Sullivan says. The former incorporates bio-based materials such as natural fibers to improve the mechanical properties of biodegradable plastics, while the latter incorporates nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes to produce materials that are stronger and more durable.
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Biodegradable Particles Can Bypass Mucus, Release Drugs Over Time
ScienceDaily, Jan. 4, 2010
Johns Hopkins University researchers have created biodegradable nanosized particles that can easily slip through the body's sticky and viscous mucus secretions to deliver a sustained-release medication cargo.
The researchers say these nanoparticles, which degrade over time into harmless components, could one day carry life-saving drugs to patients suffering from dozens of health conditions, including diseases of the eye, lung, gut or female reproductive tract.
The mucus-penetrating biodegradable nanoparticles were developed by an interdisciplinary team led by Justin Hanes, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering in the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins. The team's work was reported recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Hanes' collaborators included cystic fibrosis expert Pamela Zeitlin, a professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and director of pediatric pulmonary medicine at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
These nanoparticles, Zeitlin said, could be an ideal means of delivering drugs to people with cystic fibrosis, a disease that kills children and adults by altering the mucus barriers in the lung and gut.
"Cystic fibrosis mucus is notoriously thick and sticky and represents a huge barrier to aerosolized drug delivery," she said. "In our study, the nanoparticles were engineered to travel through cystic fibrosis mucus at a much greater velocity than ever before, thereby improving drug delivery. This work is critically important to moving forward with the next generation of small molecule and gene-based therapies."
Beyond their potential applications for cystic fibrosis patients, the nanoparticles also could be used to help treat disorders such as lung and cervical cancer, and inflammation of the sinuses, eyes, lungs and gastrointestinal tract, said Benjamin C. Tang, lead author of the recent journal article and a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
"Chemotherapy is typically given to the whole body and has many undesired side effects," he said. "If drugs are encapsulated in these nanoparticles and inhaled directly into the lungs of lung cancer patients, drugs may reach lung tumors more effectively, and improved outcomes may be achieved, especially for patients diagnosed with early stage non-small cell lung cancer."
In the lungs, eyes, gastrointestinal tract and other areas, the human body produces layers of mucus to protect sensitive tissue. But an undesirable side effect is that these mucus barriers can also keep helpful medications away.
In proof-of-concept experiments, previous research teams led by Hanes earlier demonstrated that latex particles coated with polyethylene glycol could slip past mucus coatings. But latex particles are not a practical material for delivering medication to human patients because they are not broken down by the body. In the new study, the researchers described how they took an important step forward in making new particles that biodegrade into harmless components while delivering their drug payload over time.
"The major advance here is that we were able make biodegradable nanoparticles that can rapidly penetrate thick and sticky mucus secretions, and that these particles can transport a wide range of therapeutic molecules, from small molecules such as chemotherapeutics and steroids to macromolecules such as proteins and nucleic acids," Hanes said. "Previously, we could not get these kinds of sustained-release treatments through the body's sticky mucus layers effectively."
The new biodegradable particles comprise two parts made of molecules routinely used in existing medications. An inner core, composed largely of polysebacic acid (PSA), traps therapeutic agents inside. A particularly dense outer coating of polyethylene glycol (PEG) molecules, which are linked to PSA, allows a particle to move through mucus nearly as easily as if it were moving through water and also permits the drug to remain in contact with affected tissues for an extended period of time.
In Hanes' previous studies with mucus-penetrating particles, latex particles could be effectively coated with PEG but could not release drugs or biodegrade. Unlike latex, however, PSA can degrade into naturally occurring molecules that are broken down and flushed away by the body through the kidney, for example. As the particles break down, the drugs loaded inside are released.
This property of PSA enables the sustained release of drugs, said Samuel Lai, assistant research professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, while designing them for mucus penetration allows them to more readily reach inaccessible tissues.
Jie Fu, an assistant research professor, also from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, said, "As it degrades, the PSA comes off along with the drug over a controlled amount of time that can reach days to weeks."
Polyethylene glycol acts as a shield to protect the particles from interacting with proteins in mucus that would cause them to be cleared before releasing their contents. In a related research report, the group showed that the particles can efficiently encapsulate several chemotherapeutics, and that a single dose of drug-loaded particles was able to limit tumor growth in a mouse model of lung cancer for up to 20 days.
Hanes, Zeitlin, Lai and Fu are all affiliated with Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology. Other authors on the paper are Ying-Ying Wang, Jung Soo Suk, and Ming Yang, doctoral students in the Johns Hopkins Department of Biomedical Engineering; Michael P. Boyle, an associate professor in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; and Michelle Dawson, an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
This work was supported in part by funding from the National Institutes of Health, a National Center for Research Resources Clinical and Translational Science Award, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the National Science Foundation and a Croucher Foundation Fellowship.
The technology described in the journal article is protected by patents managed by the Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer office and is licensed exclusively by Kala Pharmaceuticals. Justin Hanes is a paid consultant to Kala Pharmaceuticals, a startup company in which he holds equity, and is currently a member of its board. The terms of these arrangements are being managed by The Johns Hopkins University in accordance with its conflict-of-interest policies.
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Friday, December 18, 2009
Disruptive tech will transform consumer packaging
Time-temperature indicators, active packaging, battery-free printed RFIDs and high-barrier biopolymers to have major impact on everyday food, pharma and beverage packaging.
PRESS RELEASE, Converting Magazine, Dec. 14, 2009
Capable of eventually displacing an existing technology and transforming the industrial landscape, disruptive technologies are now revolutionising the consumer packaging industry, according to a major new study by Pira International.
Based on primary research and expert analysis, Forecasts of Disruptive Technologies in Consumer Packaging to 2019 seeks to identify and assess the various, exciting disruptive technologies that are being commercialised in the consumer packaging sector. Classifying technologies on the basis of components (e.g. RFID labels, bioplastics) and end-use packaging products (e.g. beverage containers, blister packs), the study examines the possible integration of these innovative technologies into corporate business strategies and plans.
Generally seen in low or high-end niche markets, a disruptive technology is essentially a new, emerging technology that upends an existing technology and eventually replaces it, or at least is accepted as its equivalent. This occurs even though the new technology originally appears to be inferior or too expensive. These technologies tend to cultivate slowly at first, then grow at an exponential pace. Once established and available at a reasonable benefit-cost ratio, the technology may act like a virus wiping out more conventional technologies and eventually taking over the mainstream.
Recent trends impacting consumer packaging technology include material and energy cost fluctuations due to volatile oil prices, growth of sustainable packaging and new innovations in materials and packaging formats (e.g. increased penetration of flexible packaging and rigid plastic in food packaging).
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Monday, November 30, 2009
Reportlinker Adds Lactic Acid - A Global Market Report
PR Newswire, Nov. 30, 2009
NEW YORK - Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue:
Lactic Acid - A Global Market Report
http://www.reportlinker.com/p0164411/Lactic-Acid---A-Global-Market-Report.html
World consumption of lactic acid stands enthused by its use in key industries such as cosmetics, biodegradable plastics and food additives. The recently uncovered potential of lactic acid as a pH balancer in shampoos and soaps, and other alpha hydroxy acid applications, is expected to pep up consumption in this market. Use of lactic acid in biodegradable plastics is expected to gather momentum, given the rising demand for environmentally friendly packaging. Emerging application possibilities are additionally expected to prop up the market's growth in the upcoming years. Use of lactic acid bacteria in anti microbial compounds, food additives, flavoring agents, and as a substitute for hazardous solvents in industrial applications, will all help ensure steady consumption into the future.
These and other market data and trends are presented in "Lactic Acid: A Global Market Report" by BizAcumen, Inc. Our reports are designed to be most comprehensive in geographic coverage and vertical market analyses.
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Monday, November 23, 2009
Freedonia Focus on World Bioplastics
MarketResearch.com, Nov. 30, 2009 report date
This report discusses world bioplastics demand for the years 2003 and 2008, with forecasts for 2013. Topics covered include demand by product and market; production trends; regional demand overview; demand in North America, Western Europe, Asia/Pacific, and aggregate other regions; industry composition and leading participants. Product segments include biodegradable (starch-based and other) and non-biodegradable bioplastics. Market segments cover nopackaging and packaging. This 28 page report also includes a highlights summary and a resources section.
Click here to read more or order the report
