Commodity packaging

When Wella marketed its biodegradable shampoos in the 1990s, they decided to make the packaging of this product biodegradable as well. These shampoo bottles were the first commercial product made from PHAs. Since then, PHAs have found their way to other packaging applications including motor oil bottles and disposable razors. 

Bionolle is a copolymer of 1,4-butanediol and succinic acid (i.e., poly(butylene succinate), PBS) or 1,4-butanediol and both succinic and adipic acid (i.e., poly(butylene succinate/adipate), PBSA) developed by Showa Denko. It can be considered to be one of the frontrunners in packaging applications [160]. Bionolle is 

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Sinclair, R.G. 1996. The case for polylactic acid as a commodity packaging plastic. Journal of Macromolecular Science Pure and Applied Chemistry 33 585-97. 

As polystyrene is one of the most wide-spread thermoplastics (it is processed into solid commodities, packaging materials, and expanded insulations), a vast amount of effort has gone into improving ist unfavourable flammability characteristics. " Both reactive and additive flame-retardants are useful for styrenics. 

Interest in environmentally degradable polymers began more than thirty years ago, when it was first recognized that the commonly used commodity packaging plastics such as polyolefins, poly(vinyl chloride, polystyrene, and poly(ethylene terephthalate) were accumulating in the environments in which they were discarded, after use. Since these polymers were developed for their resistance properties, it should not have been surprising that they were recalcitrant in landfills and as litter when disposed of in a negligent manner. 

The time of battery involvement was also estimated by FM Global earlier in the fire development. During the Li-ion cylindrical cell and polymer cell tests, the convective heat release rate steadily decreased after the initial vertical flame spread along the cartoned commodity packaging to approximately 600 kW at 200 and 305 s, respectively. The heat release rate then steadily increased to the upper threshold value of 1,250 kW. In both tests, the wood pallets on the second tier... 

Therefore, the subject is not discussed extensively in this book and what follows is not a complete coverage of the subject. Nevertheless it is included here as it may appeal to some commodity packagers as a means of quality control of their product. This, of course, does not exempt the supplier of additives or the food package from attaining the necessary official approvals. 

A primary target for degradable plastics is in waste and litter control and most manufacturers of such materials have made claim to the environmental acceptability of their products as replacements for the commodity packaging polymers. A primary criterion of acceptability is cost and few hydro-biodegradable polymers can at the moment approach the hydrocarbon polymers in this respect. Consequently, in the following Sections the emphasis will be on synthetic commodity polymers with enhanced biodegradability in the natural environment. By way of clarification. 

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