more and more beverage producers around the world are turning to bioplastics to bottle their products for both economic and environmental reasons. but, plenty of challenges remain.made from renewable biomass sources such as vegetable fats and oils or corn starch, bioplastics have long been seen as being the plastic of the future.cocacola, the world&39s largest beverage company, hopes someday to sell its products in bottles made fully from plants, like corn and sugarcane. the us softdrink giant already uses bottles made partially of renewable biomass resources. since 2009, in fact, more than 15 billion such bottles have left its global facilities, the company says.whether it&39s cocacola, pepsi or nestlé, nearly all major bottlers are showing a marked interest in bioplastics. economic reasons are perhaps the biggest motivator for companies in the fiercely competitive softdrink industry.most plastic bottles today are still made from fossil fuel resources, like petroleum. but oil, experts agree, isn&39t going to get any cheaper in the coming years as global reserves dwindle. many beverage companies are now taking the view that bioplastics, derived from renewable resources, are a more sustainable alternative, from a cost and supply point of view.changing directioncocacola is already using partially bioplastic botttlesthen there&39s the environmental factor. on the one hand, beverage producers want to show environmentallyconscious consumers that they&39re serious about reducing their carbon footprint. that&39s good for their image and good for sales.on the other hand, they don&39t have much choice. governments around the world, especially in industrialized nations, are approving rules and regulations to force manufacturers to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions."there is clearly momentum in the bioplastics market," says kristybarbara lange from the european bioplastics industry association in berlin. "but there&39s also plenty of confusion about what bioplastics actually are. we need to harmonize standards and labels. and consumers also need to have a better understanding."one of the most widelyused bottling materials today is polyethylene terephthalate, better known as pet. according to industry experts, the plastic material is ideal for soft drinks with carbonation, which requires durability. it&39s also colorless, which is important for selling many drinks. but, it normally has a high petroleum content.&39green polyethylene&39efforts are underway to change that. cocacola, for instance, has developed a bottle made with a pet resin that contains biobased monoethylene glycol meg. currently, the bottle consists of up to 30 percent meg and 70 percent purified terephthalic acid pta. the company is working on technology to develop pta from plants but claims it&39s complicated science and doesn&39t expect a commercial breakthrough for a few more years.man picking bottles out of water afp photomike clarkethe brazilian company braskem has developed an alternative bioplastic product it calls "green polyethylene" or green pe. the product, obtained from sugarcane ethanol, has many performance features of traditional fossil fuelbased polyethylene but not all of them.plastic bottles and shopping bags are polluting the world&39s seas and lakes"it is highly recyclable, up to 10 times, and can be used in lightweight bottles," said marco jansen, european commercial director for renewable chemicals at braskem. "but, unlike pet, it is translucent."biodegradability an issueboth biobased pet and green pe bottles are generally not biodegradable. supporters of these products say that&39s a good thing.suppliers and users of nonbiodegradable bioplastics are focused on high recyclability, according to jansen. &ldquothere is far more value in reusing materials,&rdquo he told dw. "it&39s more sustainable from a carbon footprint perspective and it&39s more economic."professor hansjosef endres, from the institute for bioplastics and bio composite materials at the hanover university of applied science and arts, fully agrees. "there are two bioplastic camps. those in favor of recyclable materials and those who prefer biodegradable materials and that&rsquos a bit of a dilemma," he told dw.corn is one of the main foodstocks used to make bioplasticsthe austrian company, naku, sees a market for biodegradable bottles though. the company has developed a bottle based on polylactic acid, a plastic substitute made from fermented plant starch that comes from plants rich in carbohydrates like corn and potatoes. naku&rsquos water bottles need between 35 and 90 days to biodegrade, compared to 350 years for a traditional plastic bottle, according to company founder johann zimmermann.but there are still challenges for these new products. the bottle is about 20 euro cents more expensive than a petroleumbased plastic bottle. another is its durability, which zimmermann claims is about six to eight months compared to about a year for conventional bottles.while bioplastics, whether biodegradable or not, are generally viewed as good for the environment, there is some concern about using food stocks to make them, especially corn and sugarcane crops."work is underway to develop secondgeneration renewable resources, which could include other plants and even waste products," lange from the european bioplastics association told dw. "there will be alternatives in the future."
