Issue 02/2017

Brand Owner
Brand-Owner’s perspective
on bioplastics and how to
unleash its full potential
“At Nestlé we are committed to continuously improving the
environmental performance of our packaging. “Lead the development
and use of materials from sustainably managed renewable resources”
is one of five focus areas of our packaging environmental sustainability
roadmap. We joined the WWF Bioplastics Feedstock Alliance to help build
a more sustainable future for the bioplastics industry whilst addressing
issues such as land use, food security and biodiversity.
We see bioplastics as an opportunity to further improve the
environmental performance of our packaging where their performance
meets the requirements of our products and where it is proven that they
are not contributing to food insecurity. We defined three generations of
bioplastics. Generation one are materials such as PLA or PHAs which
are moisture sensitive, and are therefore not suitable for a widespread use in our
packaging. There are applications where these materials make sense: e.g. PLA has
a very good twist retention and can be good for twist wrap applications. Generation
two are the drop-in materials (Bio-based Polyethylene, PET, and Polypropylene),
with exactly the same properties as what we are using today, but from renewable
resources. The third generation is really what we are aiming at; material that has
enhanced technical and environmental performance which can allow us to achieve
further optimisation of our packaging. Moisture barrier is key for most of our product
and the bioplastics industry needs to put more focus on developing solutions in this
direction!” www.nestle.com
Sokhna Gueye
Packaging Environmental Sustainability Specialist
Nestlé Research Center
®
NESTLE and Logo are registered trademarks of Société des Produits Nestlé S.A., Vevey, Switzerland
By:
Jacek Leciński, Andrea Siebert-Raths
Daniela Jahn and Jessica Rutz
Institute for Bioplastics and
Biocomposites
University of Applied Sciences
and Arts, Hannover, Germany