Natural disposable packaging

Recently, a new type of synthetic natural material developed by EarthShell Company is likely to have a wide impact on the disposable packaging material market.

At the beginning of the creation of EarthShell in 1992, it was noticed that the mixture of underground limestone, potato starch, recycled paper fibers and the like had the potential to produce extruded polystyrene foam bowls, dishes, and articulated containers. Now, with the launch of rigid instant food product packaging, the company's focus has expanded to food films (replacement film/paper laminates), hot/cold beverage cups (replacing EPS and coated paper), and rigid sheets ( Instead of cardboard boxes), even disposable plastic injection moldings, related personnel predict that these end products can be commercialized in two years.

Although EarthShell's products are not plastics in the true sense, their products often incorporate a biodegradable polymer as a moisture barrier or additive. The CEO of EarthShell believes that their success in rigid packaging materials will help plastic products win back the market lost by paper products ten years ago, and produce bowls, plates and cups developed by Earth Shell with authorized partners that the company has signed. Examples of contracts for such products. These packaging products will be "baked" on the production line by Detriot Tool and Engineering, which is similar to the production of waffle biscuits.

EarthShell has issued production licenses for hard packaging products to Sweetheart Cup Company, Owings Mills, Maryland, Huhtamaki Oyj, Finland, and Green Packaging, Malaysia. They obtained fast-food, retail and other regional production rights. Dallas-based Green Earth Packaging (GEP) is authorized to supply goods to discount stores and government agencies, and EarthShell Inc. draws a 20% license fee from sales.

Thomas Uleau, vice president of Sweetheart Cup, called the contract "one of the most important events in the food service industry in recent years." The Sweetheart Cup Company is preparing to begin production in mid-2003 and hopes to achieve annual sales of $500 million in 2007. Green Packaging plans to install five production lines in Malaysia and produce one billion finished products (mainly bowls) by 2003. GEP invested 10 million US dollars in five new production lines in Texas and started production in mid-2003.

Warming of packaging materials and beverage cup market

A consortium of EarthShell and DuPont Packaging and Industrial Polymers is focusing on the sandwich packaging market. DuPont has made global sales of food packaging to the market with annual sales of US$1 billion. Thanks to the addition of DuPont's Biomax polyester to the EarthShell formula, these packaging materials can be produced on existing "blown film" and "laminate" equipment.

This new biodegradable thermoplastic material has excellent foldability, flexibility, ease of printing, and moisture protection. It has been tested in hotels in several cities and eight national parks and is expected to replace other paper-based printing and disposable food packaging products.

John Nevling, product manager for EarthShell, believes that replacing hot beverage cups made of synthetic materials with EPS and paper packaging materials is attracting increasing interest. The contracts signed with Sweetheart Inc. include cups and other rigid packaging materials. Synthetic material hot beverage cups save more finished products than the EPS, and they have better taste and feel. Compared to paper, it is lighter and better insulated.

Deep forming of this composite material will be a more difficult problem than other hard materials. In the vacuum forming process of the biodegradable film lining, it is necessary to maintain the same wall thickness to avoid wrinkling. Composite hot beverage cups are stronger than other materials because the film forms a continuous film layer that reinforces the bottom layer of the packaging material where it can easily crack and appear small holes.

At the same time, the rigid sheet made by EarthShell is undergoing tests to see if it can replace the use of packaging board in the food and non-food industries. Others such as the use of synthetic materials through the injection molding process to produce disposable knife, fork, Work on spoons and coffee blenders is also in progress.