Materials

Orlando-Bioplastics supplier NatureWorks LLC (Minnetonka, MN) is partnering with outside firms to augment reclaim and recycling of its material in the U.S. and Europe, saying the partner businesses will offer a competitive price for post-consumer polylactic acid (PLA) scrap, according to president and CEO Marc Verbruggen.

During an earnings call on Wednesday, March 10, executives of bioplastics developer Metabolix said their joint venture with Archer Daniels Midland remains on track to start commercial supply in the coming weeks and expects to develop food contact-suitable grades this year. Telles, the joint-venture company, produces the Mirel brand of biodegradable plastic polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA).

For the record, the downturn that slammed the plastics industry starting in about mid-2008 and proceeding through mid-2009 was the first period since 1950 when the plastics industry saw a dramatic drop in consumption of resin globally. Until then, average annual demand growth had been 9%/year, according to figures presented yesterday by officials working for PlasticsEurope, the trade group representing Europe's plastics suppliers.

A recycling robot that uses sensors to detect five different wavelengths of laser beam light reflected from plastic materials, and will automatically sort six different polymer types, currently is being tested in Osaka, Japan.

The photonics sensing technology has been developed by the Idec Co. (Japan) and the Photonics Advanced Research Center (PARC) at the University of Osaka. Optical and robot technologies are supplied by Mitsubishi Electric Engineering Co. (MEE).

Research on electro-activated polymers that began at Stanford University, and was further developed at a company called Artificial Muscle Inc., has now been acquired by Bayer MaterialScience. The acquisition of the company, its patents, and its patent applications is the latest purchase by the massive plastics and chemicals supplier to focus on plastic film's surface haptics and appearance.

Leading companies from the resin supply, moldmaking, and injection molding machinery industries have joined forces in a technical cooperation to help promote and support polycarbonate automotive glazing in Japan. Bayer MaterialScience brings its Makrolon-brand polycarbonate (PC) to the project, with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries supplying its injection molding machinery expertise, and Kyowa Industrial its moldmaking prowess.

Houston—The same longevity that makes plastics desirous as a material draws the ire of environmentalists who decry the burgeoning amounts of the synthetic materials piling up in landfills. At the recent Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) International Polyolefins Conference in Houston, TX (Feb.

Many plastics processors are as yet unfamiliar with nanoparticle-sized additives and fillers, but that may soon change as suppliers rapidly ramp up capacity for these in anticipation of continued strong demand, primarily at first in the electrics/electronics industry, but also in sporting goods and other markets. 

The amount of post-consumer non-bottle rigid plastics collected for recycling in 2008 was up nearly 11% from 2007. The report, prepared by Moore Recycling Assoc. Inc. and released on March 3 by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), found that 361 million lb of post-consumer non-bottle rigid plastics were collected in 2008, with "much" of the recycled material used to manufacture new products, such as pallets, crates, composite lumber, and gardening items.

Just as Europe and North America have been forced to grapple with the new supply realities of the Middle East and China's rapid polyolefin supply buildout, Japan's petrochemical industry is also coping with wholly new trade dynamics. Tetsu Wakabayashi, president of Sumitomo Chemical America, told attendees of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) International Polyolefins Conference (Feb.