Compostable plastics: Bio-Mi shares its R&D know-how

Bio-Mi from Croatia shares its expert knowledge when it comes to the compostable plastics industry in South East Europe, including insights into their exciting R&D activities

Bio-Mi, a small and medium enterprise (SME) from Croatia, is the first manufacturer in the compostable plastics industry in South East Europe that has developed a thermoplastic biobased, biodegradable and compostable blend and has decided to share some of its know-how with those interested from the region. At first, the idea sounds naive and reckless from the economic point of view, but as a responsible Company that wishes to contribute to a more sustainable future, it is the right way to go. The Company believes that knowledge should be shared to achieve a global impact and, ultimately, change the current state of affairs. “By changing ourselves, we slowly change the world, therefore, we hope for more initiatives like this one in the future”, says Filip Miketa, the Founder of Bio-Mi.

Research and development (R&D) activities

For the past four years, Bio-Mi has intensively been investing and directing all of its activities in research and development (R&D) in order to develop the most cost-effective and commercially sought-after thermoplastic formulations that are biobased, biodegradable, compostable and have a wide application.

Bio-Mi succeeded in its mission and has produced its first officially certified compound “MI3”. During the next three years, the goal is to certify nine compounds with a clean and clear end-of-life scenario that could be adjusted according to the market and the customer’s needs (industrial and home compost, biodegradable in soil, biodegradable in marine and water). In addition to certified blends according to EN 13432, Bio-Mi produces tailor-made compounds, specialising in packaging and agro sector, that can be customised to almost any process and final product.

To learn more about Sustainable thermoplastic materials, click here.

In addition to developing new sustainable materials and packaging, Bio-Mi is also the only Company in this part of Europe to produce biodegradable and compostable thermoplastics and final packaging from its MI blends with a current capacity of 2,500 tonnes per year. The Company plans to raise the capacity at 10,000 tonnes per year during the next three years, even though that is still far less than large and reputable manufacturers from western European countries offer.

Knowing how difficult it is to remain competitive coming from a region that still lags behind when it comes to the implementation of sustainable solutions, Bio-Mi hopes to encourage a positive change in Croatia, but also in East and South East Europe. “We do not want to be the only ones, but rather encourage the development of an entire industry so that Croatia and other countries of the region become more competitive and succeed in bridging the knowledge gap between East European and Western European countries that invest significantly more in the R&D and the bioeconomy, making it harder to catch up with them. We believe that local actions can, eventually, have a global impact,” explains Filip Miketa, CEO of the Company.

It is for this reason Bio-Mi has decided to donate the know-how for the process and the biobased, biodegradable and compostable formulation to every packaging manufacturer in the region that wants to make their production green and sustainable and thus be a part of the solution rather than the problem. In this way, companies that want to diversify their production process have the opportunity to do so within their existing production capacity, without having to further invest in the R&D.

Research and innovation projects

Another important segment of the Company’s activities are research and innovation projects that have encouraged the internationalisation of their business. Bio-Mi has a young R&D team with extensive experience in the implementation EU-funded projects in the field of bioeconomy, sustainability and biomaterials.

Now, Bio-Mi participates in six Horizon 2020 projects, the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme:

• EFFECTIVE – Advanced Eco-designed Fibres and Films for large consumer products from biobased polyamides and polyesters in a circular EConomy perspective. more…
• ECOFUNCO – ECO sustainable multifunctional biobased COATings with enhanced performance and end of life options. more…
• USABLE PACKAGING – Unlocking the potential of Sustainable Biodegradable Packaging. more…
• BIOnTOP – Novel packaging films and textiles with tailored end of life and performance based on bio-based copolymers and coatings. more…
• MANDALA – The transition of MultilAyer/multipolymer packagiNg into more sustainable multilayer/single polymer products for the fooD and phArma sectors through the deveLopment of innovative functional Adhesives. more…
• NENU2PHAR – For a sustainable and European value chain of PHA-based materials for high-volume consumer products. more…

Please note: This is a commercial profile