On 20 December 2019, the court of Bologna, Italy, declared the bankruptcy of Bio-On S.p.A., a commercial producer of Polyhydroxalkanoates. Today the court of Bologna has announced an auction sale of the company’s assets. The auction offers an opportunity for interested parties to bid on Bio-On’s assets.

Nafigate together with several partners including Unilever, won a European Commission tender under the Horizon 2020 research program. The EC allocated 8.8 million euros for the project that focuses on the development and implementation of a new generation sustainable packaging project. The consortium of 17 European companies and institutions will develop ecological packaging of the future for both food and cosmetics products. The project uses the know-how of two Czech entities – NAFIGATE Corporation a.s., and the Brno University of Technology.

The January/February 2021 edition of Sustainable Plastics hosts an interview with GO!PHA board member Anindya Mukherjee. This edition is all about packaging and stepping up to the sustainability challenge. PHA seems tailored to supply the demand for sustainable materials. The EU, however, sees a problem. You can find the full article on page 26-27 of this edition. 

The new market and trend report “Bio-based Building Blocks and Polymers – Global Capacities, Production and Trends 2020–2025” from the international nova biopolymer expert group shows capacities and production data for all bio-based polymers in the year 2020 and a forecast for 2025. GO!PHA members are offered a 20% discount on the report.

When it comes to “bioplastics”, we currently notice an immense complexity of this topic, and, most of all, a plethora of contradictory legislations, which confuses or even misleads insufficiently informed consumers. The present article by Anindya Mukherjee (board member of GO!PHA) and Dr. Martin Koller (University of Graz) showcases PHA polymers as the prime class of bio materials.

U.S. House representatives, Bill Pascrell, Jr. (Democrat) and Brian Fitzpatrick (Republican) have introduced the Renewable Chemicals Act, legislation that will create an allocated tax credit for production of qualifying renewable chemicals from biomass or investment in production facilities.

GO!PHA is pleased to announce a partnership with the Renewable Carbon Initiative. RCIs goal is to speed up the transition from fossil carbon to renewable carbon for all organic chemicals and materials. This partnership therefore helps both organisations to reach their common targets and goals.

We believe that the inclusion of PHA in the Guidelines of the SUP Directive seriously undermines the potential of PHA to become a sustainable substitute for many single use applications where fossil fuel-based plastics are currently used.

During the ICTABP9 in Nanjing, China, GO!PHA co-hosted a very well attended afternoon session specially dedicated to PHA.

Danimer Scientific, a PHA manufacturer, has announced that it has agreed to a definitive merger agreement with Live Oak Acquisition Corp.

Newlight Technologies has announced the opening of a new commercial-scale AirCarbon production facility.