Japanese Car Accessory Company Start Producing Bioplastics
Mirareed is a Japanese car accessory company that started developing bioplastics in 2014.
They used following materials for their bioplastics: Japanese cypress wood, tea leaves, lotus root and rice hulls and bark.
The ingredients are crushed, mixed with fossil-based plastic resin and converted into pellets.
Bamboo seem to be the first choice as they will switch to full scale bamboo bioplastics production.
They will use Mosochiku bamboo supplied in powder by nonprofit group Sochikukai.
The pellets are supplied to molding firms who use them to make construction materials and garden utensils. It’s not said whether their bioplastics will be used in cars.
They released their bioplastic in December 2017 and it seems to be a success.
They receive many orders and inquiries and plan to expand their production facility.
Their forecasted annual bioplastic sales in 2020 is 1 billion yen ($9.04 million).
Kaneka Increases Bioplastics Production & Targets
Japanese chemical company Kaneka Corp. said that they will multiply their bioplastics production by 5.
An investment of 2.5 billion yen will be made to their Takasago plant to increase its production to 5,000 tons per year.
Works should be finished by December 2019.
Kaneka is considering increasing PHBH production to 20,000 tons in the future.
Kaneka’s PHBH bioplastics is made from plant oil and fat, and other ingredients.
It’s biodegradable as it breaks down by microorganisms in seawater or soil.
More than 90 percent of Kaneka PHBH bioplastics converts into water and CO2 within 6 months in seawater at 30 degrees celsius.
Kaneka PHBH bioplastics is mainly exported to Europe and used to make bags.
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Eco-friendly plastics cutting ocean pollution, reducing CO2 by Rui Hosomi, Hikaru Nakamura and Hiroki Ito.