New biopackaging marketed in South America

SAO PAULO, July 9 (UPI) -- A U.S. company is introducing to South America a plastic packaging that is made from biomaterials rather than petroleum.

Cargill Inc., a privately held company with headquarters in Minnesota, said the Ingeo bioplastics material will be sold in Brazil by Cargill's Starches and Sweeteners business unit.

Additional markets are predicted to develop in Argentina, Chile and other countries in the region.

Ingeo is a biopolymer fiber derived from sugar. Applications include tableware, cosmetic packaging, food and beverage packaging, disposable diapers and other products, Cargill said in a release. It has been used in more than 100 brands in the United States, Europe and Asia.

It is manufactured by Cargill's NatureWorks subsidiary in Blair, Neb. NatureWorks has the capacity to produce 154,000 tons of Ingeo a year.

"The introduction of Ingeo plastics and fibers adds a sustainable product to our portfolio and delivers an innovation to our customers that allows them to help the environment in two ways," said Marcelo de Andrade, director of Cargill's Starches and Sweeteners Brazil. "Ingeo not only has the lowest carbon footprint of any commercially available plastic but also offers entirely new options for recovery after its useful life."

Cargill said Ingeo production generates 60 percent less greenhouse gas and requires 50 percent less fossil fuel than the production of polyethylene terephthalate, a thermoplastic polymer resin used in synthetic fibers known as PET. A type of PET made from recycled material is referred as rPET.

Andrade added that Ingeo products biodegrade in four months or less during industrial composting, compared with years needed for conventional plastics to degrade in nature.

"The product's sales have started locally and Cargill is ready to help NatureWorks meet demand from customers looking for sustainable product or packaging solutions that are also environmentally friendly," Andrade said.

A study release in January by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Heidelberg, Germany, indicated the packaging made with Ingeo "outperformed PET packaging in terms of lower overall greenhouse gas emissions and lower overall energy consumed," a NatureWorks release at the time stated.

"Brand owners and converters will lower the carbon and energy footprint of clamshell packaging by moving away from PET and rPET to Ingeo polymer," said NatureWorks President Marc Verbruggen. "This is true with today's virgin Ingeo and, in the longer term, recycled Ingeo will decrease that footprint even more."