Compostable bioplastics: turnover slowing to 828 million in 2023

There will be a setback in 2023 for the compostable bioplastics supply chain after a decade of growth, due to the still too widespread phenomena of illegality, the dangerous dumping mechanisms, with low-cost shoppers of dubious quality imported from the Far East, but also the growing diffusion of pseudo-reusable tableware, as well as the increasing presence of non-compostable materials in wet waste collection and the serious state of misinformation.

This is the snapshot taken by the 10th Report on the Italian compostable bioplastics supply chain presented in Rome during a conference organised by Assobioplastiche, Consorzio Biorepack and Cic (Consorzio Italiano Compostatori) and attended by the Deputy Minister for the Environment and Energy Security, Vannia Gava. Who ensured the government's commitment on two fronts.

"I will soon convene a round table to meet the demands of the sector: to combat non-compostable shopping bags and single-use plastic products passed off as reusable, and to increase information on compostable materials". Gava then guaranteed that, together with the companies, a list will be drawn up of existing and future applications "that can be exempted from the bans provided for in the Packaging Regulation", another hot front on which the executive promises to pursue the sector's demands, as on the Sup directive. And on this front too, the deputy minister continued, "I have already given a mandate to open a round table and to have the technical elements to respond point by point and on a scientific basis, protecting a strategic sector for our industry and our economy".

Returning to the figures presented yesterday, the outlined picture is that, as mentioned, of a retreat on the wave of the strong downturn recorded by prices (raw materials, semi-finished and finished products), but the sector confirms itself as strategic for the production system and capable, also thanks to the strong propensity to invest in research and development, of developing synergies with other sectors, starting with agriculture.

In 2023, therefore, the turnover developed by the supply chain stood at 828 million after the 2022 record of 1.16 billion (-29.1%), while the total volumes of manufactured products reached 120,900 tonnes (-5.5%), a situation similar to that recorded in the sector of virgin conventional thermoplastics (-6%). With the disposable sector experiencing the greatest difficulties (-20%) due to the double stranglehold represented by the unfair competition of pseudo-reusable - tableware made of traditional plastic and banned by disposable regulations but nevertheless passed off as reusable - as well as imports of compostable products from the Far East. Which represents, said Luca Bianconi, president of Assobioplastiche, "no longer sustainable dumping on which the authorities must shed full light". While Marco Versari, president of Biorepack, recalled how "every kilogram of non-compostable materials (mainly traditional plastics, glass and metals) that litter the collection of wet waste and must be separated before recycling operations, also subtracts 1.65 kilograms of compostable matrices".