The Best Bioplastic Company of 2023 (FREE)

It was a difficult decision to pick a winner for the best bioplastic company of 2023 as I believe 2023 wasn’t the best year for bioplastics and for plastics in general . But if I had to pick a winner, then it would be:

The Winner is …

NatureWorks

New PLA Plant in Thailand

NatureWorks is going through with the construction of their second PLA plant in Thailand, a decision that had been postponed for a couple of years. They probably had no other options as NatureWorks is also owned for 50 % by PTT (Thai oil company) so building a second PLA plant in Thailand was probably part of some kind of deal between Cargill and PTT.

More: NatureWorks Celebrates Construction Milestone for New PLA Plant

New video

NatureWorks released a new corporate video.

More: New NatureWorks Corporate Video

New office

NatureWorks announced the opening of a new office in the Asia Pacific region.

More: NatureWorks Opens Office in Bangkok

New PLA for 3D printing

NatureWorks and Jabil partnered to offer new Ingeo PLA-based powder for selective laser sintering 3D Printing platforms.

More: NatureWorks and Jabil Collaborate to Offer New Ingeo PLA-based Powder for Selective Laser Sintering 3D Printing Platforms

3M Golf Tournament

NatureWorks had their 3M Open (golf tournament). They communicated a lot about this sponsorship. Initially, I found it a bit ‘bourgeois’ but compared to what I have seen from other bioplastics company, I tend to change my opinion about this one. One of the major problems of this golf tournament is that its main sponsor is 3M who is perceived as a mega toxic company.

New partnership in US & Canada

NatureWorks signed a partnership agreement with Bamberger Polymers.

More: NatureWorks and Bamberger Polymers partner on PLA in US & Canada

New CEO

The have appointed a New CEO, Erik Ripple, to replace previous CEO Rich Altice.

More: NatureWorks Appoints New President and CEO

Social media & email Marketing

NatureWorks did a good job in terms of social media activities and email marketing as it caught my attention and helped me to stay tuned as to what was going on at NatureWorks.

Corporate standards

I have the impression that NatureWorks stayed cleared out of bioplastic politics. Since I have been following bioplastics, I’ve noticed some immoral corporate actions by bioplastic lobbyists, companies and associations for the sake of pulling weaker parties down to be perceived as better or to win an argument. To some extend, NatureWorks seem to have keep clear from political games …. I may be wrong here but that’s the impression that I have.

European Bioplastics Chairmanship

EUBP’s chair had to step down for personal reasons so EUBP’s board elected two co-chairs to replace him ad interim, and one of those two co-chair is a NatureWorks VP (Mariagiovanna Vetere) who’s name I have seen many times but with whom I have never spoken to … and this brings u to the following point. More: Stefan Barot steps down as Chair and member of the Board of EUBP

Points for improvements

I believe that NatureWorks‘ weakest point is it stakeholders relationship. NatureWorks is one of the only bioplastics company where I have no person to speak to if I had any questions. It’s like if they were stuck in some kind of ivory tower. But then again, I have been in contact with NatureWorks’s mother company ‘Cargill’ and although we haven’t been on the same wavelength …. Cargill people have always behaved in a polite manner and behaved as gentlemen in my regards. And this is what I call ‘corporate professionalism’ … as a blogger, I should be able to write my opinion but still be talked to with courtesy… and that’s what Cargill did. But the again, I don’t know what is the interaction between Cargill and NatureWorks.

So join me in congratulating NatureWorks for their remarkable leadership and achievements in 2023 and remember that it’s usually in crisis times that your true nature comes to the surface …