dutch state secretary for infrastructure and the environment mansveld announced a plan last month to ban free plastic bags, starting january 1, 2016. this is one facet of a move into a new direction for the packaging industry, which appears to be reaching a turning point. huib burggraaf of van der windt verpakking and patrick gerritsen of bio4pack talk about compostable packaging.compostable packaging&ldquoi distinguish between compostable and noncompostable, and renewable and nonrenewable,&rdquo patrick gerritsen says. &ldquoeverything is biodegradable in the end, it just could take millions of years. renewable doesn&rsquot automatically mean that packaging is also compostable. that also depends on the additives that are added.&rdquo huib burggraaf confirms sticking to the same categories. &ldquoa standard only exists for compostable packaging, namely that it has to be processed into compost within 90 days in an industrial environment.&rdquomomentumthe development of compostable plastics began roughly twenty years ago. &ldquofor the past ten years, we&rsquove seen developments gaining momentum,&rdquo huib says. &ldquowe are still using many agricultural products, such as lactic acid from corn, and starch from potatoes. in time, plastics will only be made from residual waste.&rdquo although the market for compostable plastics is growing, their number remains small. &ldquoaccording to statistics, the ratio of compostable plastics in the netherlands is one percent of all plastics,&rdquo huib says. there is a potential for growth, although two difficulties remain price, and the fact that not all packagings can be made from compostable or biobased resources yet.price and qualitymore expensive resources cause a higher cost price for packagings. for a foil, this can be many times the price of a noncompostable packaging. for a coffee cup, the price is thirty to forty percent higher. especially in view of the low oil prices in recent months, the gap between sustainable plastics and conventional plastics is widening. &ldquoat first, fruit and veg was our most important market,&rdquo patrick says. &ldquobut prices are under a lot of pressure there, and when costs have to be cut, packaging goes first. when you sell four packaged tomatoes for 99 cents, the packaging has to be very cheap.&rdquo&ldquoin addition, the quality is still insufficient for some packagings,&rdquo huib explains. &ldquofor instance, when it comes to packagings that are to influence a product&rsquos shelf life, there really isn&rsquot a compostable alternative yet.&rdquogrowing markets and communicationthe growth of the market is mainly found in the packaging of organic products. &ldquobecause the packaging is more expensive, we are looking for sectors where the packaging really has added value,&rdquo huib explains. &ldquoso our compostable foils can be found in the fruit and veg department of albert heijn, for instance.&rdquo compostable and renewable packaging is not very well known with the consumer. huib &ldquowe do have to work on communication regarding these packagings. we are working hard on that within the european bioplastics partnership.&rdquo this organization launched the seedling logo the visual mark of compostable plastics. patrick is involved with holland bioplastics, an organization that talks to ministries and others, to increase awareness of these plastics.more informationvan der windt verpakkinghuib burggraafhuib.burggraaf@vanderwindt.combio4packpatrick gerritsenp.gerritsen@bio4pack.compublication date 582015author rudolf mulderijcopyright www.freshplaza.com 
