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Biodegradable plastic Ecovio in German ALDI shopping bags



The large German discount supermarket chain ALDI SÃœD is now offering its German customers shopping bags made of BASF’s biodegradable plastic Ecovio®. These bags are manufactured for ALDI by the VICTOR Güthoff & Partner Group, head­quartered in Kerpen, Germany.

The plastic Ecovio consists of Ecoflex® and of polylactic acid (PLA), which is obtained from corn, a renewable raw material. Chemically speaking, Ecoflex is a petro­chemical-based polyester. And yet, thanks to its special molecular structure, it can be digested by microbes under precisely defined conditions: it is completely biodegradable according to European standard EN 13432. Whereas Ecoflex makes the bag flexible, tear-resistant, waterproof and suitable for printing – giving it the properties of a classic plastic – the stiff PLA contributes the renewable raw material.

The combination of Ecovio and Ecoflex allows film manufacturers such as VICTOR to produce plastic bags and other film products with tailor-made properties – a higher percentage of Ecoflex renders the film more flexible whereas a higher percentage of Ecovio renders it stiffer. Thus, Ecoflex makes it possible for renewable raw materials like PLA to now be employed in high-performance consumer products.

Biodegradable shopping bags offer customers an additional advantage: they not only are strong enough to be used multiple times as a shopping bag, but at the end of their days, they can also serve as a bag for collecting and disposing of organic kitchen garbage – in most of the German communities this is already permitted.

“The two plastics Ecoflex and Ecovio have been developed primarily for prod­ucts such as shopping bags and bags for organic waste, which are transformed into valuable compost – together with the bio-waste – in an industrial composting facility”, explains Andreas Künkel, in charge of the development of biodegradable plastics at BASF. In these applications, the biodegradability of the materials constitutes a benefit for customers and environment.



Additional information about BASF’s materials Ecoflex® and Ecovio® is available at www.plasticsportal.eu/ecoflex.

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