USA: “Green” Packaging in Strong Demand

© Innovia

Industry experts in the USA expect biodegradable plastics to post annual double-digit growth rates by 2014. It is thought the main reasons for this positive trend are lower prices due to extended capacities as well as improved product properties.

Since 2000 the demand for degradable plastics has been subject to a constant rise in the USA. Between 2004 and 2009 their sales rose by an average of 14.4 % each year. By 2014 experts forcast an average annual increase of 16.6 %.

“Out of the niche – into the mass market! – this motto also seems to increasingly apply in the USA. One of the still most frequent applications for bio-plastics are shopping bags. There is rising demand for these organic bags from consumer and environmental associations in European countries but also in North America and Asia. And potential is growing. While initial applications were only found in the medical field (such as degradable implants and surgery/suture materials), today organic plastic are also successfully positioned in the hygiene and packaging sectors.

Save Money – Improve Image

Since these plastics were comparatively expensive to make until recently, often not being available in sufficient amounts and still displaying deficiencies, they suffered a niche existence for a long time. However, major plastic consumers such as Wal-Mart & Co. kept on improving their “green image” while trying to save material costs at the same time.

Over the past few years the most important producers of organic plastics have significantly expanded their production capacities thereby clearly improving the availability of these products. At the same time, the prices for these “new” plastics are coming down whereas the costs of the key raw materials for “conventional” plastics, crude oil and gas are soaring.

Improved Properties

Besides lower prices improved product properties are also major drivers for this rising demand. The use of advanced polymerisation, mixing technology and higher-yield processing routines means not only quantity but also quality is improved. Likewise, the introduction of technical guidelines and standards to limit packaging waste has also promoted sales of these degradable materials. Data furnished by the Germany Trade & Invest (gtai) show, however, that the USA is still lagging far behind countries in Western Europe.


Few Manufactures – Many Applications

The production of degradable plastics is comparatively underdeveloped in the USA. While demand exists for a wide range of minor applications the country only counts a handful of serious manufacturers. Market leaders here include Innovia Films as the biggest producer of cellulose film, Nature Works for polylactide (PLA) and Novamont as the leading producer of starch-based plastics. Other renowned enterprises are BASF, Cereplast, DuPont, Telles and StarchTech. As interest in organic plastics is growing, more and more suppliers are entering the scene.

The demand for plastics as a whole and plastics-based products, in particular, is currently soaring in the USA. While imports in the crisis year 2009 were down by 21% against the previous year, they were up by 25.5% between January and August 2010 compared to the previous year.


The bright prospects for bio-degradable packaging are also generating new products. Here polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) boasting the highest dynamics with an average growth rate of 103.6 % per year is among the most significant group of products today. The first reason for this being PHA’s competitive price as well as the development of PHA products for disposable food packaging or for non-woven containers and bottles.

Market researchers from Freedonia Group Inc. forecast a total sales increase here for the USA from US$ 198 million to US$ 380 million by 2014.