Plastic mulch is used in vegetable and fruit production and is usually made from standard plastic in South Africa.
One of the problem is that plastic mulch is not collected afterwards and left in the soil. The accumulation adds up year after year.
Novamont’s Mater-Bi range of proprietary resins biodegadable and made from starch, cellulose and vegetable oils.
The mulch degrades naturally in the soil, converting to carbon dioxide and feeding into soil microbial systems.
Andrew Smith and Andrew Pollock formed the “Really Great Material Company” (RGMC) in Cape Town and they represent Novamont in Southern Africa.
The first trials of Novamont’s biodegradable plastic mulch will be done with wine farms.
The raw material will be imported and the mulch film will be manufactured in South Africa under license of Novamont.
Arthur Williams says:
“A plastic manufacturer doesn’t need special machinery to convert,” “their existing equipment just needs tweaking to work with the Mater-Bi resins .People think plastic is cheap but it isn’t cheap – there’s a tremendous cost to the environment and to society, it’s just that this cost has never been worked into its price.”
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