Introduction
This was the fourth annual conference on EU Bioplastics organised by the European Bioplastics Association. This year the EBA expected numbers to be down on last year, anticipating no more than 250 delegates. 380 had turned up, the result being an excellent meeting but for shortages of conference materials and overcrowding in the exhibition area. 90 companies from 33 countries were represented, 22% being from outside Europe. No hardcopy or CD of the presentations was available at the time of writing.Keynote Speech- The Biopolymer Value Chain
Dr Alexander Schwarz
of McKinsey & Co said biopolymers offered strong environmental
advantages and used as an example polyethylene produced from sugar via ethanol
in Brazil. This process emits a net 0.1
tonne of CO2per tonne of PE compared with 12 tonnes for PE made from coal in
China, 2.1 tonnes from naphtha in China, 1.2 tonnes from naphtha in the USA and
0.8 tonnes from natural gas in the Middle East.
Routes to PE from fossil fuels can be expected to become more costly due
to GHG regulations and taxes, but in the meantime, some consumers appear to be
willing to pay more for biopolymers. A
September 2007 McKinsey survey of 7751 consumers around the World showed.....
