When it comes to bioplastics, PLA leads the pack. Here&#;s all you need to know about this handy material and its place in food packaging.
Link to sontex
PLA is one of several bioplastics. It stands for Polylactic Acid, and like all other bioplastics, it&#;s technically still plastic.
The main difference from traditional plastics is that PLA is made from renewable resources, such as corn starch, sugarcane, sugar beet and cassava, as opposed to oil or gas.
PLA is made from the waste left over from existing processes like corn cultivation. Lactic acid is extracted and processed into a granulate from which new products can be made.
When produced, PLA is typically both rigid and transparent. So, it&#;s suitable for salad containers, straws, bags, and (cold) drink cups.
Transparent PLA is also good at keeping fruit and vegetables fresh for longer as it allows moisture to escape, similar to some regular plastics.
These days, PLA is most often used as container lining, complementing other materials, such as paper or cardboard. Verive carries several PLA-lined products like our cardboard containers as well as our container and coffee cup lids.
However, in its transparent form, PLA is not suitable for hot food or reheating as it has a low melting point. The contents should not exceed 40&#; (or 105&#;). That said, PLA can be transformed into the more heat-resistant CPLA.
Our soup containers with PLA lining, made from renewable resources and fully compostable according to the EN certification.CPLA is a crystallised form of PLA and stands for Crystallised Polylactic Acid.
As PLA is not really suitable for hot food, when it comes to products like coffee cups or cutlery, CPLA is a good alternative because it can handle temperatures up to around 90&#; (or 195&#;).
During the manufacturing process, chalk is added to PLA as a catalyst, and the PLA resin is rapidly heated and cooled during production to produce CPLA.
PLA is still plastic.
Though some PLA packaging labels claim they are &#;plastic-free,&#; it is still technically plastic. This is also true of many other compostable packaging materials, like those made from cellulose. For transparency we avoid the term &#;plastic-free&#; when discussing our food packaging and tableware products
Plastics can be made from organic matter like sugars or starches. It just so happens that most plastics we use on a mass scale are made from petrochemicals because of their lower production cost.
Though produced from renewable raw materials, making PLA still requires a chemical reaction similar to petrochemical-based plastics. PLA is still very much a polymer, which means it becomes soft when heated and hard when cooled.
Both PLA and CPLA need to be sent to a specialist industrial composting facility to be broken down. This process takes around 90 days.
These products cannot be composted at home because home composters do not reach high enough temperatures to break them down.
You should always check local waste management infrastructure to see whether the facilities exist to collect and process PLA. Sometimes they can be collected alongside food and organic waste.
It&#;s important to note that just because PLA looks and feels like any other plastic, there&#;s a risk it can end up in regular plastics recycling if disposal instructions are not made clear enough.
Yes, but only when the correct recycling schemes available. Therefore, it&#;s crucial to ensure PLA does not end up in the plastic recycling bin if the correct schemes are unavailable.
Why? PLA can contaminate existing recycling streams. Because of its lower melting point, and the difficulty separating it from other plastics like PP and PET, PLA should be kept out of the existing recycling plants. However, with more chemical recycling plants arriving on the scene, recycling PLA will become increasingly possible.
PLA looks a lot like PET plastic, but is made from the waste left over from processes such as corn cultivation.No, PLA will remain in the environment because it needs specialised composting facilities to break down.
Therefore, manufacturers should use clear labelling like the Plastic in Product turtle logo to encourage consumers to dispose of PLA correctly. This way, PLA waste can be carefully managed and can exist as part of a sustainable collection and disposal system.
Yes, according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), PLA is safe to use in contact with food. PLA should be stored in a cool environment at all times and can have a use-by date.
PLA may play an important role in the future of packaging.
However, it is not a magic bullet solution. It needs to be disposed of properly, and that means it needs to be separated from other plastics and sent to specialist composting facilities.
This isn&#;t easy, and the potential for it to contaminate existing recycling facilities is a real risk. If it&#;s not possible to make PLA&#;s proper disposal method clear to consumers, alternative packaging materials may be a better choice.
While PLA may not be as compostable or recyclable as other materials, in PLA we still have a useful product made from renewable resources, so it shouldn&#;t be written off too quickly.
No.
However, some PLA applications, such as plates and cutlery and container lining, have been affected. There has been a market restriction on PLA, the same as has impacted other plastics. For example, PLA plates and cutler are banned while PLA lined cups must carry the turtle logo. Read more about the Single-Use Plastics Directive here.
If you have any questions about PLA products or other sustainable materials, please get in touch with us, we&#;d love to hear from you.
View our range of PLA products available here.
Was this article useful?
Going green is powerful, ask the Hulk
Mail usAt Vegware, we manufacture our catering disposables from a variety of plant-based materials. We use paper, board and pulp, but the big difference is that we don&#;t use conventional plastics.PLA CPLA compostable bioplastics starches
Our cups still need to be leakproof, and our clients still want clear windows, so we use compostable bioplastics &#; compostable materials derived from plant sources.
What is PLA?PLA is a compostable bioplastic derived from plant sugars. PLA stands for polylactic acid. It can be made from any sugar, such as corn starch, cassava, sugar cane, or sugar beet.
Contact us to discuss your requirements of what is cpla plastic. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.
NatureWorks is the world&#;s largest producer of PLA, and a key partner to Vegware. Industrial corn is the primary source crop at the moment, but NatureWorks are working actively to diversify feedstocks, investigating other fibrous non-food crops, or even creating lactic acid from carbon dioxide or methane.
NatureWorks refer to their PLA under the Ingeo brand, and offer full information online on how it is made, and end of life options.
How PLA is madeCorn plants are milled to extract the starch, in the form of glucose. The glucose is then fermented to produce lactic acid. Next up, a chemical process transforms the lactic acid into a polymer, which can be made into pellets, known in the industry as resin.
Just like a conventional plastic resin, the PLA pellets can be used in a variety of ways &#; extruded into a sheet or film, injection moulded, cast into sheets, or spun into fibres. PLA has a huge range of applications, but at Vegware we use it for:
PLA has a low melt point, so is best for cold use up to around 40ºC or 105ºF. Where more heat resistance is needed such as in cutlery, or lids for coffee or soup, we use a crystallised form.
This involves adding chalk to the PLA to act as a catalyst, and then rapidly heating and cooling the PLA resin during production.
The result is a product which is heat stable to 90ºC or 194ºF. Vegware&#;s CPLA products are still suitable for industrial composting, in either in-vessel or open windrow composting.
Corn for food, feed AND industrial usesThe industrial corn used to make NatureWorks Ingeo PLA is non-food-grade, so it is not competing with food for human consumption.
The whole plant is harvested, and every part of it is used. The protein and starch have many different uses:
Read more information on food and bioplastics from NatureWorks, the world&#;s largest producer of PLA.
Sustainable growing practicesThe corn plants are grown using sustainable farming practices, without excessive pesticides and water use.
In the same way that FSC can prove the sustainability of timber production, NatureWorks has independent ISCC PLUS certification &#; more info here.
This in-depth scheme demonstrates the sustainable growing practices for the plants used by NatureWorks to make PLA:
Implementing this scheme has involved helping farmers to alter their growing practices for greater sustainability.
PLA &#; which waste stream?Vegware&#;s compostable catering disposables can biodegrade in under 12 weeks in commercial composting, which provides the perfect balance of microbes, moisture and warmth.
Our Environmental team offer our clients unparalleled zero waste support &#; see point 2 in our Composting FAQ.
Where there is no access to industrial composting, used Vegware should be put in general waste.
Vegware&#;s takeaway packaging is made from plants, not plastic, using lower carbon, renewable or recycled materials, and these sustainability benefits still apply no matter what happens to them after use.
Compared to conventional plastics, bioplastics currently represent a tiny fraction of packaging, so it is not currently economical to sort PLA from other waste streams.
If there is a major increase in bioplastics volumes, then waste sorting facilities can be calibrated to recognise and sort bioplastics using near-infrared identification.
As well as composting, PLA is suitable for mechanical recycling into new PLA, as practised by Looplife Polymers in Belgium.PLA CPLA compostable bioplastics starches
Studies have shown that low levels of bioplastics do not harm plastics recycling. German and Italian researchers have found there was no reduction to quality, up to these levels:
This information comes from (1) the report PLA in the Waste Stream, a report initiated by the German Ministry of Food and Agriculture.
And (2) from CONAI, the National Packaging Consortium of Italy: Working Group Biodegradable Packaging Recovery Project report, .PLA CPLA compostable bioplastics starches
We don&#;t encourage anyone to put PLA into plastics recycling, but these studies offer comfort to plastics reprocessors, who are understandably keen to maintain quality.
The company is the world’s best disposable plastic cutlery supplier supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.