Environmental Awareness and Cost Pressures Drive Degradable Plastic Packaging Demand to 9.45 Million Tonnes by 2023

Public environmental awareness continues to grow, and with it the acceptance and growth rate of bioplastics in packaging have risen markedly. A new Smithers Pira study shows that, as renewability and degradability shape demand, the packaging market will require 9.45 million tonnes of degradable plastics by 2023. The report “Degradable Packaging Market Forecast to 2023” analyzes how demand in this market will change over the next ten years.

In the report, Smithers Pira states that consumption value of polymer materials had already exceeded USD 650 billion in 2013. North America and Europe each accounted for less than 25% of market share, Asia (including Japan) reached about 40%, and other regions represented 13%. By 2023, Asia’s demand for biopolymer materials will reach 34% of total demand, while Europe’s and North America’s shares of the biopolymer materials market will decline.

Two main factors are driving bioplastics’ continued rise: stronger public environmental awareness and higher prices for fossil fuels and their derivatives. As conventional polymers refined from petrochemical products (petroleum-based polymers) keep becoming more expensive, bioplastics’ acceptance and growth rate in packaging have also increased.

As renewable materials gradually become important raw materials and energy sources, bio-conversion plants will increase investment in technology and in the production of chemical feedstocks, some of which will be processed into degradable polymer materials. It is understood that bioplastics are gaining favor among more and more packaging professionals. As mentioned above, rising energy costs and a renewed understanding of environmental sustainable development will lay the foundation for bioplastics’ success in the market.

Biopolymer materials are mostly used in packaging and food service, mainly for products intended for single use or to be sent to landfills or washed into the sea. As a result, biodegradability has become a primary consideration when people choose packaging materials.

For many years, ordinary packaging has had a price advantage over biopolymer material packaging. However, cost savings should not come at the expense of the environment. According to the report, bioproducts, as a sustainable and renewable raw material, have already gained a firm foothold in the market, and the room for expansion of degradable plastics will inevitably be limitless; this is also an inevitable trend of future development.

Source: China Packaging Network (pack.cn), original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-361811.html