Trellis Earth Products, an American rapidly running manufacturer of branded biodegradable food packaging and plastic bags has submitted two new patents to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The files cover high Performance Hybrid Bioplastic and 100% Petroleum-Free Resin From Agricultural By-Products.The high Performance Hybrid Bioplastic patent covers an improved method of bioplastics formulation and technology to obtain the new thermoformable blend at approximately 70% biomass. New way of manufacturing helps to improve product qualities, particularly additional strength, higher biomass, lower cost, greater formability. The most result is to obtain a biomassed based product and a continuation of a “sustanaible” development of the company. An importance of the amount of biomass has been explained by Bill Collins, President of the company: “There is a lot of misconception in the marketplace. People don’t realize for example that compostable plastics can be derived from 100% petrochemicals, as many compostable plastics are. Biodegradability as a term is being legislated so it’s become somewhat meaningless. What is important is to measure sustainability. The amount of biomass in a product is a good measure of its sustainability — its ability to rely on recent plant carbon, not ancient sunlight (i.e. oil), so to speak. Sustainability is the cure to global warming, not compostability”.
The second patent refers to the “next generation” technology blend for bioplastics, 100% petroleum-free “plastic”. The material that behaves like paper which is water proof and food-contact safe is obtained by using agricultural industry byproducts such as wheat chaff and soybean hulls. This product entirely petroleum free and made at a lower cost is ideal for thermoforming trays and plates for compostable food service and conventional packaging applications.
Bill Collins summarized these patents: "These two new materials represent significant enhancements to enable us to extend our product lines in both retail and wholesale markets, while building on our brand, Trellis Earth® and our commitment to reducing and eliminating petrochemicals from food service disposables, and delivering on our commitment to enabling our customers to 'Go Green For Free,' or at no additional cost to petroleum based plastics.
(...)We are leading the industry into a new era of petroleum free bioplastics that repurpose agricultural by-products and eliminate both the use of food crops and the use of petroleum in plastics. This can greatly reduce the food service and retail packaging industries' reliance on materials that contribute to global warming, and help create new jobs and new opportunities for sustainable business practices at the same time."
The coming of a new era for bioplastics seems very necesary, especially when we look at the current statistics: biooplastics represent only 0.1% of the plastics market while several hundred billion plastic bags, 113 billion disposable cups, 30 billion disposable eating utensils and 29 billion disposable plates are sold per year just in the United States.
