Worldwide plastics are used in very large quantities. During the past 60 years that plastics has been produced, plastics has substituted and continued to replace traditional packaging systems like glass, wood, cloth, metals and other minerals and materials in very many applications. Polyolefin (PE, PP and PS) plastics (plastics made from hydrocarbon [natural gas]) continue to dominate applications and the packaging market.
Reduce, reuse, recycle, remove
According to the UK based group
Waste Online approximately 100 million tons of plastic waste is generated every year (100 000 000 000 kilo). The use of a non-renewable resource (oil) and the environmental waste issue have become increasingly important issues for the plastics and packaging industries. All over the world efforts are being made to efficient use on resources with
Reduce,
Remove and/or
Reuse/
Recycle (polyolefin) plastics (4R's programs).
Nor-X Industry AS supports all efforts to increase efficient use of limited resources and reduce environmental impact of plastic waste created largely by human activity.
Biopolymers and Degradable Polyolefins
Nor-X Industry AS believes that the potential application range of polyolefin substitutes like biopolymers (starch based Hydrobiodegradable polymers) will be continually developed for a wider range of nichè applications and products. Society believes it is advantageous to use waste from agriculture production to make products to replace those that use non-renewable oil resources.
There are though also serious challenges with Bioplastics from biological sources – energy consumption is not necessarily better than oil based polyolefins (thus CO2 emissions may not be better when looking at cradle to grave life cycle analyses [LCA]). Much of the energy used to create starch based polymers is derived from fossil fuels. Using the term 'sustainable' to describe Bioplastics is not appropriate in this respect.
Using food or feed grade agricultural products and/or GMO materials to produce plastic may also be seen as a challenge in an increasingly feed/food hungry world. Biopolymers also degrade through anoxic conditions producing methane that has four times the global warming effect of Carbondioxide thus increasing the global warming which will result in even less land available for feed and food grade agriculture (See
'An Inconvenient Truth'). Many biobased polymers also use synthetic oil based polyesters.
Bioplastics today only substitute a small amount of polyolefin plastics in all application areas because material properties are not adequate for the applications. Bioplastics are currently not recyclable, designed strictly for composting systems and finally the cost is app. 2-3 times the cost of polyolefin plastics (vs. biopolymers that is). Bioplastics using polyolefins/polyesters to achieve the required material properties (strength/heat resistance/water resistance) are also cannot also not be consider 'sustainable'.
Bioplastics could be used to substitute oil-based plastics in a number of product applications, but in their current form it is unlikely they will eliminate polyolefin-based plastic products.
Nor-X Industry AS expects that the bioplastics/biopolymer industry application rate will accelerate. We believe that the biopolymer and waste-based (starch) products may capture a share of the products and applications where they show competitive advantages. There are significant positive social and environmental reasons for this development.
THE [100-X%] PARADOX: Future of DEGRADABLE polyolefin plastics
We doubt whether even the most ardent proponents of polyolefin substitutes would seriously believe there will be a 100% substitution or removal. There are many reasons for this – cost; the industries and consumers need for cost-effective solutions to practical problems, material properties, breadth of application areas, the many, many types of products polyolefin resins are used in and finally the billions invested in infrastructure and facilities of the industry and related industries. It must also be noted that polyolefin-based products are based on natural ethane gas, which in many instances today is a 'by-product' of oil-production and -refining for energy use, (90% of the gases produced in Russian oil fields today is burnt off (flared) - a total waste of a usefull resource). Also when polyolefin products are energy-recycled (incinerated) one gets full energy recovery - this is not the case with biopolymer products (Hydrobiodegradable plastics).
Nor-X Industry AS therefore does not believe that polyolefin/natural gas based plastics will be eliminated within the next 100 years. We therefore will continue to be challenged with the [100-X%] paradox: that i.e. Biopolymers do not address or provide a solution to all the plastic that is based on polyolefins - and this is very likely to remain the significant part for the next century or longer.
The polyolefin industry, society and the responsible consumer needs to address the challenge of reducing the environmental impact from polyolefin plastics and their after use disposal effect on our planet.
Polyolefin plastics will remain the main bulk (>95%) of the ‘plastics’ material for the foreseeable future. The consequence of this is that society, industry and the consumer need to address the environmental footprint of polyolefin plastics. In this respect environmentally friendly OxoBioDegradable additives for polyolefins provide a viable solution that allows polyolefins to be recyclable, are
environmentally harmless and final end products that are proven to be harmless and ultimately allow the remnants to become fully biodegradable are a serious alternative - and the cost effect is minimal.
We must therefore, in addition to the biopolymer substitutes, develop approaches and solutions whereby we can Reduce, Recycle and Remove polyolefin plastics - Environmental Friendly OxoBioDegradable Additives are the solution !
Nor-X Industry AS now offers society at large a 4th R - that of remove - degrade and biodegrade the final product after use.
Large unmet need
With an additional cost of less than 1% on packaging to consumer all the plastic packaging accounting for more than 36% of all plastic used in Europe (
app. 39,7 million tons of plastics; so app. 14.000.000.000 kilos of plastic waste) can be made recyclable and biodegradable. Is this cost to our environment worth a cost increase of <1% compared to existing products ?
Nor-X Industry AS projections suggest there is a requirement within the polyolefin industry and product application markets (a wide variety of packaging that can be made oxo-biodegradable) for oxobiodegradable additives, far exceeding the projections provided by market analysers relying on past performance to stipulate future development.
When the polyolefin (packaging) industry appreciates the potential of a recyclable environmental friendly additive that initially degrades and biodegrades disposed of plastic, when society and the consumer recognise the opportunity to solve a significant environmental challenge and reduce environmental pollution at minimal cost, then we are confident Nor-X Degradable additives will have their place in a significant and increasingly strong market.
The Nor-X vision extends far beyond our current product development, we have "in the pipeline" technologies for new innovative applications to reduce overall polyolefin use, allowing more effective use of lower cost plastic raw materials - making packaging more affordable for the end user - more efficient barrier techniques in multi layer food packaging and also an exiting method to lessen/reduce the shocking impact of oil spills at sea. All of this solutions will become reality as soon we are totally confident these products will extend our value for both our current investors and our planet in the medium and long term.
Nor-X Industry AS is working to provide solutions for the polyolefin industry with our technologies.
