About Bio-Degradable Packaging

Sanplast is proud to announce that it has joined the world of degradable plastic products. We can offer now a family of PP and PET products that are degradable. The products will degrade and disappear in a short timescale, leaving no fragments, no methane and no harmful residues.

Plastic materials are bioinert. They persist for decades after use. Over time they will disintegrate, but it takes too long. To accelerate this integration in a world that makes efforts to turn green, special additives that are added to the polymer have been developed, and Sanplast has joined this green trend.

The process of degradation is initiated by an additive that is added to the polymer during production. This makes it oxodegradable – breaks the polymer chain into fragments, thus makes it brittle and eventually accessible to microbial activity i.e. bio- digestion. This reaction is accelerated in the presence of heat, light and stress, conditions that exist in a landfill. The final result is water, carbon dioxide and a small amount of minerals compatible with soil. The process is irrevocable and continues until the plastic has reduced to nothing more than above components.

The degradation process of the plastic is causing the plastic tray to degrade within a much shorter time then the regular PP and PET products (a few months instead of tens of years).

Tests were made that included accelerated weathering conditions that proved the viability of the degradations process. The technology has been independently tested and proven to be environmentally safe, leaving no toxic substances at the end of the degradation process. The material has also been tested as safe for direct food contact under EU standards.

It should be emphasized that the properties of the degradable PP and PET products such as strength, heat durability, color, etc., are identical to those of the non degradable products.