The recent ‘green’ movement for a sustainable earth has caused a market shift in most consumer industries; the plastic packaging market is no different. The analysis indicates that the global biodegradable plastic packaging market will reach a value of $2.38bn in 2014. That forecast and others appear in The Biodegradable Plastic Packaging Market 2013-2023: Bioplastic Polymers, published in December 2013.
Demand has been fuelled by increasing consumer demand backed by government initiatives, worldwide environmental awareness, increasing price and decreasing long-term availability of fossil resources, and finally waste management which is a major concern for all nations due to diminishing landfill space.
The biodegradable plastic packaging market is niche; however, opportunities that remain to be captured are extraordinary. With significant financial investments being made, a growing number of new applications, product conceptions, and production processes will emerge as the number of manufacturers, converters and end-users increase steadily. We will also witness a key trend where there will be a shift in production of biodegradable plastics from North America and Europe to Latin America and the Asia-Pacific, who are poised to be winners due to the locally available feedstocks such as starch, corn and cassava.