Europe Biodegradable Plastic Packaging Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The European Biodegradable Plastic Packaging Market is expected to witness a CAGR of 5.7% over the forecast period from 2020 to 2025. Bioplastics represent about 1 % of the about 360 million tonnes of plastic produced annually. But, as demand is rising, and with more sophisticated biopolymers, applications, and products emerging, the market is continuously growing.

Key Highlights

• The increase in the use of biodegradable plastics in all market segments is driven by the continuously increasing demand for sustainable products by consumers and brands alike. This can be attributed to a growing awareness of the impact on the environment and the need to reduce the dependency on fossil resources as well as the continuous advancements and innovations of the bioplastics industry in new materials with improved properties and new functionalities.
• The improvement in technology is a major contributor in the development of this industry. For example, today, there is a bioplastic alternative for almost every conventional plastic material and corresponding application.
• In the year 2019, the adoption of the Single-Use Plastics Directive and, at the end of the year, the publication of the new EU Commission’s European Green Deal led to a strong dynamic, which will even intensify in 2020.
• This emerging industry to biodegradable plastics has the potential to unfold an immense economic impact over the coming decades according to a job market analysis conducted by EuropaBio in 2016.
• The Covid-19 impacted the market for biodegradable plastic packaging market as the supply chain syatem was disturpted due to a long lockdown period but the market has started recovering and demand is all set to witness drastic increases.

Key Market Trends

Starch Blend Material to Witness Significant Market Share

• Biodegradable plastics altogether, including PLA, PHA, starch blends and others, account for over 55.5 % (over 1 millions tonnes) of the global bioplastics production capacities (European Bioplastics Estimates).
• New and innovative biopolymers, such as bio-based PP (polypropylene) and PHAs (polyhydroxyalkanoates) show the highest relative growth rates and are expected to do so in future.
• Starch-based plastics are complex blends of starch with biodegradable or compostable plastics such as polylactic acid, polybutylene adipate terephthalate, polybutylene succinate, polycaprolactone, and polyhydroxyalkanoates. Among the biodegradable plastics packaging materials Starch Blend has been witnessing significant growth in the previous years due to its large variety of applications.
• Starch-based plastics have become even more relevant after the introduction of improved resin grades, their ability to blend with other biopolymers and an increasing number of suppliers. Starch-based bioplastics are widely used in medical industry packaging due to their biocompatibility, low toxicity, degradation properties and mechanical properties.

Flexible Packaging to Hold Dominant Market Share

• Biodegradable plastics are used in various markets, from packaging, catering products, consumer electronics, automotive, agriculture/horticulture, and toys to textiles and a number of other segments.
• Among the various applications packaging holds the dominant position in local and international market space with more than 53 percent (1.14 million tonnes) of the total bioplastics market in 2019.
• Flexible packaging is any package whose shape can be easily changed and therefore is named flexible. Examples of such package includes bags, pouches, shrink films, tubes, sleeves and carded packaging among others.
• The usage of flexible biodegradable plastic packages are in high usage in the food and beverages industry. The increased usage pf packaged food along with awareness around environmental protection has contributed to a lot of known brands using flexible bioplastics for food and beverage packaging.

Competitive Landscape

The European Biodegradable Plastic Packaging Market is moderately fragmented with various companies dominating the market share like Amcor Limited, Mondi PLC, Minima Technology, Tipa-corp Ltd. among others. The companies keep on innovating and indulge into strategic partnerships in order to sustain their market dominance.

• Sept 2020 - Mondi, a leading global packaging manufaturer collaborated with BIOhof Kirchweidach, an organic farm in Bavaria, to design a sustainable packaging solution for 500g packs of tomatoes on the vine to be distributed to PENNY supermarkets, owned by major German retailer REWE Group.
• Sept 2020 - Amcor, a global leader in packaging, today announced the world's first recyclable flexible retort pouch. This is considered to be a big technical breakthrough, which has been attained with years of dedicated research and investment by the company.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support