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BIOPLASTICA NOVAMONT: THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY AT THE SERVICE OF THE ENVIRONMENT
Rome (Ign) - Its name is Mater-Bi and it's a bio-plastic applied in the field of packing, derived from raw materials of an agricultural origin and non-genetically modified starch. It is used for the packaging of organic products in the leading English supermarket chains of Sainsbury's and Tesco, and has been used by the Swedish Naty to make babies' nappies, but it is designed and sold by an Italian company: Novamont (www.novamont.com). Based in Novara in Piedmont, for around 16 years the company has been involved in the production of films, packaging, additives for tyres, canvases for mulch and products for the home produced using entirely biodegradable materials. And thanks to Mater Bi, the company has received a prestigious international award: UNEP, the UN environmental programme, gave it an award together with 13 other companies for its commitment to environmentally sustainable products, at the margins of the last Earth summit in Johannesburg.
Novamont is a fairly young company, established in 1990 as a research branch of Montedison, and by 2005 had turnover of €35m. The company began to make a profit in 2003, and the shareholders chose to reinvest these profits in the company, which provides 120 jobs. 30% of the employees work in the laboratories, and on average 12% of turnover is reinvested in research. The experience of recent years has also led to a joint initiative with Goodyear for the creation of a rubber with low impact, both environmentally and on worker health, thanks to the elimination of the silica and lampblack used in traditional blends. Coca Cola, meanwhile, chose the disposable plastic cups produced by Novamont for its stand at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics.
All this is thanks to Mater-Bi (www.materbi.com), a composition of micro-granules produced using cornstarch, which is the raw material for producing biodegradable objects for everyday use: from shopping bags to bags for the collection of the organic fraction of refuse, from objects for catering (plates, glasses and cutlery) to blends replacing lampblack and silica in the production of tyres. But the use of vegetable raw materials is not enough to ensure low environmental impact: the type of production process used, technical performance in function of the application, material density, and the methods of product use and disposal are also aspects that need to be taken into consideration.
It is for this reason that Mater-bi bioplastic bags make it possible to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by at least 30%, while the biofillers for "Biotred" tyres, developed in collaboration with Goodyear's European research centre and which today are produced on an industrial level, contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases at the level of 9.52g/km, i.e. 20% of the target set by car manufacturers to reduce CO2 emissions by 25% by 2008. Pneo, meanwhile, is a bag for the collection of the wet fraction of refuse, which makes it possible for the contents to "breathe". The system makes it possible to reduce the odour and weight of rubbish by encouraging the evaporation of the water present in the putrescible fraction thanks to the high breathable qualities of the material. Around 100 town councils, mainly in cooperatives, use it for differentiated refuse collection. The largest cooperative is CEM, based in Cavenago (Milan), which brings together around 46 council districts, for a total population of around 400,000 users.
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