Inovelab

In Brazil, more than 3 million tons of PET bottles are disposed in the nature by year, totalizing 30% of the country production. Besides that, the PET bottles spend 200 years to decompose, biopolymers plastics bottles decompose in 123 days. By a law in Brazil, the biodegradable plastic would substitute the PET plasctis in four years. This gives the oportunity to the establishment of an industrial plant to manufacture biodegradable plastic from sugar in Brazil.

Bioplastics are a form of plastics derived from plant sources such as sugar cane, soy bean oil and corn starch rather than traditional plastics which are derived from petroleum. This is regarded as a much more sustainable activity, as it relies considerably less on fossil fuel imports and produces less greenhouse emissions, producing between 0.8 and 3.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide less per tonne of bioplastics compared to the same weight in petroleum-based plastics. Many bioplastics are truly biodegradable and will degrade in commercial compositing units. Some bioplastics will even biodegrade in the less aggressive conditions of a home compost heap. However, bioplastics can also be formulated to be durable.

This development is closely associated with the long term activity of sugar and alcohol production in Brazil, which is based on the natural endowments of soil, climate and geographical extension that favors sugar cane cultivation.

This notwithstanding, the emergence of the bioplastic industry was only possible because of a specific government scheme to build research capacity and knowledge production in biotechnology which also stimulated cooperation between the public and the private sector.