What is degradable plastic like PLA and PBAT?

Degradable plastic is a new type of plastic material. At the time when environmental protection is becoming more and more important, degradable plastic is more ECO and can be the replacement for PE/PP in some ways.

There are many types of degradable plastic, the most widely used two is PLA and PBAT, PLA’s appearance is usually yellowish granules, the raw material is from plants like corn,sugarcane etc. PBAT’s appearance is usually white granules,the raw material is from oil.

PLA has good thermal stability, good solvent resistance, and can be processed in many ways, such as extrusion, spinning, stretching, injection, blow molding. PLA can be used to: straw, food boxes, non-woven fabrics, industrial and civilian fabrics.

PBAT has not only good ductility and elongation at break, but also good heat resistance and impact performance. It can be used in Packaging, tableware, cosmetic bottles, drug bottles, agricultural films, pesticide and fertilizer slow-release materials.

At present, the global PLA production capacity is about 650000 tons, China capacity is about 48000 tons / year, but in China PLA projects under construction is about 300000 tons / year, and the long-term planned production capacity is about 2 million tons / year.

For PBAT, the global capacity is about 560000 tons, China capacity is about 240000, long-term planned capacity is about 2 million tons / year, China is the largest producer of PBAT in the world.