Bioplastic Packaging Market Overview
Major trend being witnessed in the bioplastic packaging market is shift in consumer preference toward environmentally friendly plastic. Traditionally, manufactured plastic is derived from petrochemicals which are synthetic in nature and thus are non-biodegradable products. The conventionally manufactured plastic does not degrade naturally and cause severe environmental pollution, which is detrimental to the health of living organisms. Bioplastic is one such plastic solution that does not carry the environmental issues, associated with the conventionally manufactured plastics, as they are manufactured using biodegradable feedstock. Bioplastic is serving as an environmentally friendly substitute to the conventionally developed plastic.
Bioplastics are a group of polymers that are biodegradable in nature, which are basically manufactured from renewable sources such as vegetable fats and oils, corn starch, straw, woodchips, and food waste. The bioplastic packaging market is expected to witness rapid increase owing to growing environmental awareness and supportive government regulations to boost the consumption of bioplastics.
On the basis of product type, the bioplastic packaging market is categorized into renewable base and petrochemical base. Further, the renewable base bioplastic is classified into bio-derived polyethylene (PE), starch, aliphatic and aromatic polyesters, cellulose, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), molded fiber, aliphatic-aromatic co-polyester (AAC), polylactic acid (PLA), and water-soluble polymer (WSP).
On the basis of technology through which the bioplastic is obtained, the bioplastic packaging market is categorized into injection molding, bioplastic directly extracted from biomass, pelletizing, non-biodegradable bio-derived thermoplastics, biodegradable polymers synthesized from petrochemicals, bioplastic synthesized from bio-derived monomers, bioplastic produced by natural or genetically modified organisms (GMO), and others.
Based on region, the bioplastic packaging market is categorized into Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East and Africa. Among all the regions, Europe was the largest region for bioplastic packaging followed by North America and Asia-Pacific. However, the Asia-Pacific market is expected to witness the fastest growth. The growing demand for eco-friendly, advanced, and effective packaging in Asia-Pacific countries such as China and India is attributed by growing consumption of packaged food and beverages, and rising need for packaging solutions from e-commerce industry.
Bioplastic Packaging Market Dynamics
Growth Drivers
Major driver identified in the bioplastic packaging market is the growing focus of governments across various nations to incentivize the companies producing bioplastics, while simultaneously regulating the capacity expansion of conventional plastics. The net benefit to a country adopting bioplastics on a mass scale is prevention of ecological damage that would have been caused by conventional plastics. Furthermore, this also removes the need for further resources to fix the damage.
The industry players are expanding their production of bioplastic raw material in Latin America and Asia-Pacific regions. Technical advancements in algae and carbon dioxide-based materials, beginning of nanotechnology-based bioplastic manufacturing (owing to its enhanced quality and low cost), plant material as an alternative to polymer, and sugar-based bioplastic sourced from low energy process and non-food crops are some features laying new opportunities for bioplastic packaging market.
Restraints
Major restraint identified in the bioplastic packaging market is high cost of production of bioplastics. Though bioplastics are biodegradable, they cannot be degraded as easily as naturally occurring organic matter. In order to balance the physical properties of plastics and biodegradability of organic matter, the overall cost of production of bioplastics increases significantly. Technological innovations and government incentives are likely to erase the price gap between conventional and bioplastics eventually, but till then the global bioplastics packaging market will face an uphill battle.
Opportunities
With rapid urbanization and industrialization, demand for packaging is growing exponentially in emerging economies. The growing demand for eco-friendly, advanced, and effective packaging in Asia-Pacific countries such as China and India is boosting the growth of the bioplastic packaging market. In the coming years, emerging countries are expected to undertake environment-friendly approach for packaging solutions due to strict regulations and supports by the governments. This will create opportunity for the advanced bioplastic packaging solutions in the emerging economies.
Bioplastic Packaging Market Competitive Landscape
Some of the major competitors in the global bioplastic packaging market include DowDupont Inc., BASF SE, Mitsubishi Plastics Inc., Novamont S.p.A., Braskem S.A., NatureWorks LLC, Koninklijke DSM N.V., Innovia Films Ltd., and ECM BioFilms Inc.
The study provides the historical as well the forecast market size data for various countries, including the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, the U.K., Italy, Spain, Japan, China, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa.
