Veranstaltung

Bio-based Plastics – How do we Grow the EU Industry?

01.12.2014

Today, bio-based plastics have an established market, demonstrating rapid growth both in Europe and globally. While Europe is currently the largest producer and user of bio-based plastics, this situation is expected to change in the future with production increasingly being based in countries where feedstocks are cheaper and where production costs are lower. Even with increasing fossil fuel prices expected to make bio-based plastics more competitive compared to fossil-derived plastics, ensuring the cost-competitiveness of EU bio-based plastics production compared to other regions globally is expected to become an increasingly difficult challenge. On top of this, several other hurdles are impeding the development of the bioplastics industry in the EU. These include:

A lack of Government support for bio-based plastics
Problems translating research into products
A lack of public awareness of bio-based plastics and their benefits
The need for further technology development in some sectors to improve functionality

This workshop aims to identify workable solutions to the major hurdles hampering the development of the bio-based plastics sector in the EU. It will consider, amongst other issues:

Would refocusing communications about bio-based plastics from their ‘green’ credentials to their functionalities prove beneficial in promoting demand for bio-based plastics from novel sectors, or would the introduction of mandates and targets have a greater impact?
Would people pay a bio-premium for bio-based plastics if they knew the benefits?
Whether it is better to focus on new technologies or on improving existing technologies?
How can we make knowledge and expertise in this sector more readily accessible to technology developers?

We are especially interested in PLA and PHA as we consider these bio-based plastics as having the highest potential for deployment in the EU.

Workshop Information:

The workshop takes place on the afternoon of the 1^st December 2014. A detailed programme for the workshop will be released shortly. The workshop will begin at 14.00 and will finish at 18.00 with a networking cocktail reception. Light refreshments will be available at around 16.00.

The objectives of the workshop are to:

Prioritise the technological, non-technological and market hurdles affecting the use of IB in bio-based plastics production
Identify novel solutions to the most important hurdles including timeframes for action.
Bring together IB end users with technology providers, innovation agencies and decision makers to stimulate discussion and help develop connections.

Input from market, policy and technological experts within the area of bioplastics is crucial to allow us to develop recommendations which best answer the needs of industry. This workshop is a satellite event to the 9^th European Bioplastics Conference which will be held at the Square, Brussels on 2^nd and 3^rd December 2014. The workshop is organised by the BIO-TIC project consortium. All companies and people who are not members of European Bioplastics are eligible for 10% off the admission fee for the 9^th European Bioplastics Conference but need to register for this workshop before registering for the European Bioplastics Conference in order to receive the discount.

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