MATER-BI to Meet French & Italian Targets a Year Early : Novamont to Raise Renwable Content of Compostable Bioplastic to 40%

Novamont bioplastics compostable plastic organic waste plastic bags
© Novamont

At the recent G7 environmental summit in Bologna, Italian biotech firm Novamont unveiled its decision to introduce a 40% minimum threshold for bio-based content in all of its MATER-BI compostable bioplastics.

The company is bringing forward the targets of Italy and France for bio-based content for certain applications (e.g. fruit and vegetable bags), for which a minimum threshold of 40% will be established from 2018.

The announcement was made at the Italo-French initiative 'STOP PLASTIC WASTE - COALITION EVENT'. According to the company the move will help reduce CO2 emissions by an annual equivalent of 75,000 city cars from the streets of our cities.

Novamont also noted that more environmentally sustainable products with a renewable raw material content of up to 100% for specific applications will be made available and will be certified through the Kyoto Club e-label! environmental multi-label.

According to the company the latest milestone was achieved thanks to its investment of over €700 million in proprietary technology, the regeneration of decommissioned industrial sites and the creation of new jobs over the past twenty years.

MATER-BI bioplastics now incorporate monomers from renewable sources produced in Novamont biorefineries.

"This decision to voluntarily raise renewable content levels across our entire range of MATER-BI bioplastics goes hand in hand with that taken many years ago to only use these bioplastics for applications which make a contribution to the system,” explained Novamont’s CEO Catia Bastioli.

In particular, he said the company aiming to improve and intercept a greater quantity of organic waste. The goal is to facilitate a recycling system which minimises the waste of organic matter, which is so fundamental for the soil, and maximise the possibility of recovering traditional plastics.

“This is part of the circular economy model in which we must define the most useful purposes for the various flows and collaborate with various stakeholders in new ways to achieve three fundamental objectives: new local economic growth in the sector, social inclusion and the regeneration of local natural capital. Only in this way will it be possible to eliminate plastic pollution in our waters, which is 80% caused by non-virtuous behaviour on land," concluded the CEO.

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