bioplasticsMAGAZINE_1406

News
FDA approval for
PA 1010
Evonik Industries (Germany) has received a food
contact substance notification (FCN) for its family of
PA1010 polyamides. The VESTAMID ® Terra DS16 natural
may be used as a basic polymer in the production of
articles intended for food contact. Details to the approved
applications can be found in the FCN#001439. Whereby,
essentially, it may be come in contact with all types of food
at chilled to elevated room temperatures for single use
as well all types of food in repeated use application up to
100 °C.
Approval is based on the simulation and actual tested
migration behavior of the monomers, oligomers and other
trace substances.
“Receiving the FDA approval is a validation that our
efforts to strive for the best quality bio-based polyamides
on the market has paid off”, said Dr. Benjamin Brehmer,
Business Manager for biopolymers. “This milestone also
allows us to confidently enter new markets with clarity of
the regulatory situation”.
Vestamid Terra DS is based on polyamide 1010. Both
monomers (the diamine and the diacid) are derived from
castor oil, making Terra DS a 100 % bio-content polymer.
Vestamid Terra HS is based on polyamide 610, which is a
63 % bio-content polymer. PA610 has already received both
EU and USA food contact approvals with non-alcoholic
foods. Having food contact approvals for both products
enables Evonik to offer a broader portfolio of bio-based
polyamide to the market.
Vestamid Terra is derived partly or entirely from the
castor bean plant, a raw material that is not animal feed,
and which does not compete with that of food crops. Unlike
other bio-sourced products, biopolyamide Vestamid Terra
is a high performance polymer, so there are no restrictions
on its service life and it retains impressive physical and
chemical resistance properties similar to petroleumbased
high performance polymers. MT
www.corporate.evonik.com
FTC warns oxo-users
about deceptive claims
Staff of the Federal Trade Commission has sent out
letters warning 15 undisclosed marketers of oxodegradable
plastic waste bags that their oxodegradable, oxo biodegradable,
or biodegradable claims may be deceptive.
The FTC, which “works for consumers to prevent fraudulent,
deceptive, and unfair business practices and to
provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them”,
has taken on this issue before. In a demonstration that it
not only barks, but also bites, it last year - almost to the
day - announced six enforcement actions, including one
that imposed a US $ 450,000 civil penalty and five that for
the first time address biodegradable plastic claims, as
part of the ongoing crackdown on false and misleading
environmental claims.
This year, the Commission has targeted 15 sellers of
plastic bags manufactured from oxo-degradable plastic.
Oxodegradable plastic is made with an additive intended
to cause it to somewhat degrade in the presence of oxygen.
In many countries waste bags are intended to be
deposited in landfills, however, where not enough oxygen
likely exists for such bags to degrade in the time consumers
expect. Contrary to the marketing, therefore, these
bags may be no more biodegradable than ordinary plastic
waste bags when used as intended.
“If marketers don’t have reliable scientific evidence for
their claims, they shouldn’t make them,” said Jessica
Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
“Claims that products are environmentally friendly
influence buyers, so it’s important they be accurate.”
The staff notified 15 marketers that they may be deceiving
consumers based on the agency‘s 2012 revisions
to its Guides For the Use of Environmental Marketing
Claims (the Green Guides). Based on studies about how
consumers understand biodegradable claims, the Green
Guides advise that unqualified degradable or biodegradable
claims for items that are customarily disposed in
landfills, incinerators, and recycling facilities are deceptive
because these locations do not present conditions in
which complete decomposition will occur within one year.
The FTC advised marketers that consumers understand
the terms doxodegradable or oxo-biodegradable
claims to mean the same thing as biodegradable. Staff
identified the 15 marketers as part of its ongoing review
of green claims in the marketplace. It has given them a
brief period to respond to the warning letters and tell the
staff if they will remove their oxodegradable claims from
their marketing or if they have competent and reliable
scientific evidence proving that their bags will biodegrade
as advertised. KL/MT
www.ftc.gov
6 bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/14] Vol. 9