According to a new report by Smithers Pira, the demand for sustainable compostable and biodegradable plastic in packaging is accelerating.

Biodegradable and compostable polymers are currently worth about USD 2.56 billion. The potential is fuelling R&D spending for bio-based and conventional polymers — including polylactic acid (PLA), aliphatic-aromatic copolyesters, starch/starch blend plastics, cellulose acetate, and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs).

The total consumption of these in packaging across the Smithers forecast period will increase from a projected 770,000 tons in 2024 to 1.17 million tons in 2029.

Polymer recycling is the plastic industry’s response to calls for more sustainable packaging. However, compostable and biodegradable grades have an important role to play, especially for formats that cannot be collected or recycled cost-effectively.

The largest market in packaging is for the bioplastic PLA which has debuted in rigid plastic formats. It is being supplemented by more flexible PLA grades and a family of recycled PLA grades produced from chemically recycled feedstocks.

For the second largest segment, aliphatic-aromatic copolyesters, new additives are being developed to improve the strength of polybutylene succinate (PBS).

Starch and thermoplastic starch blends for extrusion coating and lamination are growing in popularity, leveraging recent advances that allow these to be manufactured from carbohydrates or another 100% bio-based feedstock.

The market appeal of biodegradable or compostable plastics is biased heavily towards certain formats and segments, and in turn, has been stimulated by regulatory developments.

An enduring impediment of biodegradable and compostable polymers is the high relative cost of biodegradable and compostable polymers compared to conventional thermoplastics, which is compounded as they often have a significantly higher density than familiar grades.