Market
Because of the fragmentation in the market and ambiguous definitions it is difficult to describe the total market size for bioplastics, but estimates put global production capacity at 327,000 tonnes. In contrast, global consumption of all flexible packaging is estimated at around 12.3 million tonnes.
COPA (Committee of Agricultural Organisation in the European Union) and COGEGA (General Committee for the Agricultural Cooperation in the European Union) have made an assessment of the potential of bioplastics in different sectors of the European economy:
- Catering products: 450,000 tonnes per year
- Organic waste bags: 100,000 tonnes per year
- Biodegradable mulch foils: 130,000 tonnes per year
- Biodegradable foils for diapers 80,000 tonnes per year
- Diapers, 100% biodegradable: 240,000 tonnes per year
- Foil packaging: 400,000 tonnes per year
- Vegetable packaging: 400,000 tonnes per year
- Tyre components: 200,000 tonnes per year
- Total: 2,000,000 tonnes per year
In the years 2000 to 2008, worldwide consumption of biodegradable plastics based on starch, sugar, and cellulose – so far the three most important raw materials – has increased by 600%. The NNFCC predicted global annual capacity would grow more than six-fold to 2.1 million tonnes by 2013. BCC Research forecasts the global market for biodegradable polymers to grow at a compound average growth rate of more than 17 percent through 2012. Even so, bioplastics will encompass a small niche of the overall plastic market, which is forecast to reach 500 billion pounds (220 million tonnes) globally by 2010.
Read more about this topic: Bioplastic
Famous quotes containing the word market:
“I respect not his labors, his farm where everything has its price, who would carry the landscape, who would carry his God, to market, if he could get anything for him; who goes to market for his god as it is; on whose farm nothing grows free, whose fields bear no crops, whose meadows no flowers, whose trees no fruit, but dollars; who loves not the beauty of his fruits, whose fruits are not ripe for him till they are turned to dollars. Give me the poverty that enjoys true wealth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“At market and fair, all folks do declare,
There is none like the Boy that sold Broom, green Broom.”
—Unknown. Broom, Green Broom (l. 23–24)
“Today the tyrant rules not by club or fist, but, disguised as a market researcher, he shepherds his flocks in the ways of utility and comfort.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)