Bioplastics: sector turnover set to fall by 15% in 2024
A sector in difficulty: Asian competition, illegal products and so-called ‘reusable’ items are taking their toll. Assobioplastiche and Biorepack: Italia is the European leader; the sector must be defended
After a decade of steady growth between 2012 and 2022, the Italian bioplastics industry has seen a sharp downturn over the last two years. Total turnover fell to €704 million (-15% compared with 2023) despite volumes being slightly higher than in the previous year (121,500 tonnes, +0.5% on 2023). The number of companies in the compostable bioplastics supply chain has seen a slight slowdown: there are currently 278, broken down into producers of basic chemicals and intermediates (7), producers and distributors of granules (22), primary processors (189) and secondary processors (60). The number of dedicated staff (i.e. those within companies in the sector who deal directly with the products entering the compostable bioplastics supply chain) has also fallen slightly: there are 2,913, down 2.2% on the previous year.
This picture emerges from an analysis by Plastic Consult presented at the 2nd Italian Forum on Compostable Bioplastics, organised by Assobioplastiche and the Biorepack consortium. It confirms the sector’s current difficulties from a production perspective, whilst recycling activities for end-of-life products are growing and becoming more established (in 2024, 57.8 per cent of products placed on the market were recycled in the organic waste stream, two percentage points more than in 2023).
The main factors at play are the distorting effects linked to the economic dumping of products originating mainly from the East, the phenomenon of so-called ‘reusable’ tableware, and the proliferation of illegal carrier bags, which account for over 25 per cent of those in circulation in Italia, ten years after the introduction of the sanctions. The associations are therefore calling for greater regulatory support, legislative clarity, stricter controls against unfair commercial practices, and a strategy to defend and promote the national supply chain, which is a European leader in the field of the circular bioeconomy.
“Today, buying a finished product made from compostable bioplastic manufactured outside the European market costs less than buying the raw materials needed to produce it in Italia or in any European country,” explains Luca Bianconi, president of Assobioplastiche: “Non-EU companies, mainly Asian, often benefit from public subsidies, very low labour costs and less stringent regulations than those in Europe. All this places an unsustainable competitive strain on our companies. Until a few years ago, a significant proportion of bioplastic products sold in Europe were manufactured by European companies. Today, this proportion has gradually declined. Although European production capacity remains high, in several sectors it is now under-utilised.”
As regards so-called ‘reusable’ tableware – marketed by exploiting a loophole in the SUP regulations (single-use plastic) which, whilst banning single-use items, has not specified in detail the requirements for defining a product as reusable, thereby paving the way for circumvention of the rules – Italia has recently notified the EU of a technical proposal defining reusable products, on which comments are now awaited.
