Plastic and Bags Manufacturers Association (PBMA) President Nasim Wali Gul told an Express Forum that the Oxo-Biodegradable Plastic — D2W formula bags, which the government claimed was biodegradable, is not suited for recycling systems. He claimed that sources in the environmental department have declared the use of bags made from this material to actually cause pollution to double. Gul added that the material previously used for making biodegradable shopping bags could be recycled if it did not degrade naturally quick enough. “In K-P, the plastic manufacturing companies support more than 5,000 families,” Gul stated as he expressed the fear that the D2W formula would increase pollution, unemployment and even lead to the closure of several industrial units

top Share Download full-text PDF Bio-based plastics: status, challenges and trends Article (PDF Available) in Landbauforschung Volkenrode 63(4):321-332 · January 2014 with 2,896 Reads DOI: 10.3220/LBF_2013_321-332 Cite this publication Henning Storz 16.65Thünen Institute Abstract The increasing concern about diminishing fossil resources and the impacts of the global warming is driving the growth of the new bioeconomy. Bioplastics, thermoplastic biopolymers that are either biodegradable or at least partly bio-based, are one of the fastest growing markets. The average growth rates over the past years have constantly been double-digit. Though the production capacities are small, currently approximately 0.5% of the global plastics productions, recent market forecasts expect a sharp rise in the upcoming three years. Due to identical property profiles and established recycling processes, the largest growth is expected for partly bio-based conventional plastics, especially for bio-PET. This development was made possible by numerous innovations in the fields of chemical catalysis, biotechnology, and plastics engineering. It reflects an ongoing change in the bio-plastic industry, which increasingly focuses on the production of durable, bio-based plastics, after years of concentration on biodegradable plastics used for niche applications. But also the markets for bio-based and biodegradable plastics are expected to continue their rapid growth. This article reviews advances in production processes and material properties of selected bio-based plastics. It focuses on the most important bio-based plastics with established production and commercial applications. It furthermore provides an overview of new applications, and trends, as well as of major producers.

top Share Download full-text PDF Bio-based plastics: status, challenges and trends Article (PDF Available) in Landbauforschung Volkenrode 63(4):321-332 · January 2014 with 2,896 Reads DOI: 10.3220/LBF_2013_321-332 Cite this publication Henning Storz 16.65Thünen Institute Abstract The increasing concern about diminishing fossil resources and the impacts of the global warming is driving the growth of the new bioeconomy. Bioplastics, thermoplastic biopolymers that are either biodegradable or at least partly bio-based, are one of the fastest growing markets. The average growth rates over the past years have constantly been double-digit. Though the production capacities are small, currently approximately 0.5% of the global plastics productions, recent market forecasts expect a sharp rise in the upcoming three years. Due to identical property profiles and established recycling processes, the largest growth is expected for partly bio-based conventional plastics, especially for bio-PET.

Since February, the Pakistan-Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) has been negotiating with the business community and plastic bag manufacturers to shift to an eco-friendly alternative for plastic bags. The agency’s efforts began when the Ministry of Law and Justice notified the Prohibition of Non degradable Plastic Bags (Manufacture, Sale, Use) Regulation 2013 earlier this year. Under the regulation, which will take effect from April 1, regular plastic bags will be replaced by “oxo biodegradable” ones that decompose quickly. Shopkeepers and manufacturers defying the new regulation could face charges at an environmental tribunal. The traditional polythene plastic bags take centuries to decompose naturally, release carcinogenic fumes when they are burned, choke water drains and also pose a risk to wild animals. According to Pak-EPA, Pakistan uses 350 bags per head per annum on average.

Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB)-Degrading Potential of Microbes Present in a Cryoconite of Jamtalferner Glacier Nancy Weiland-Bräuer1, Martin A. Fischer1, Karl-Werner Schramm2 and Ruth A. Schmitz1* 1Institute for General Microbiology, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany 2Molecular EXposomics, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Helmholtz Zentrum München GmbH, Neuherberg, Germany Aiming to comprehensively survey the potential pollution of an alpine cryoconite (Jamtalferner glacier, Austria), and its bacterial community structure along with its biodegrading potential, first chemical analyses.