Bio-based polyethylene, sold by Braskem as I'm green, is made from ethanol fermented from sugarcane and is chemically identical to fossil PE. Bio-PP follows the same logic. They run on existing lines with no reformulation.
They replace any PE or PP item: bags, bottles, caps, films and rigid packaging. Because they are the same polymer, they are recyclable in the PE stream but are not biodegradable or compostable.
Braskem reports that bio-PE shopping bags in Japan avoided roughly 460,000 to 470,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) over three years, a vendor figure. Market data from European Bioplastics, the industry's trade body, puts global bioplastics capacity at 2.31 million tonnes, rising to 4.69 million by 2030, with actual production 1.67 million tonnes, about 0.5 percent of the 431 million tonnes of plastic made each year; packaging is 41 percent of that capacity.
The messaging rule: the word bioplastic covers three different things, bio-based but not biodegradable (bio-PE, bio-PET), fossil-based but biodegradable (PBAT, PCL), and bio-based and biodegradable (PLA, PHA, starch). Always name which. Drawbacks: a premium over fossil PE; land use for sugarcane; the item still becomes conventional plastic waste and does nothing for litter or microplastics.