Polylactic acid: a green packaging material

Polylactic acid (PLA) is a new type of polyester material produced using organic acid lactic acid as a raw material, and it is a new star in environmental protection packaging materials. Because PLA, the basic raw material of PLA, is one of the body's inherent physiological substances, it is harmless to the human body. As an important raw material, PLA can be processed into various downstream products like thermoplastics such as polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene, and polystyrene, including films, bags, packaging boxes, food containers, disposable snack boxes, and beverage bottles. , Low-molecular poly-hole acid for drug release packaging agent.

PLA has good mechanical properties and physical properties, suitable for blow molding, thermoplastics and other processing methods, and is easy to process. And it has good moisture resistance, grease resistance and airtightness. The performance is stable at room temperature, but it will decompose automatically when the temperature is higher than 55°C or under the influence of oxygen and microorganisms. After use, it can be completely degraded by microorganisms in the natural world, eventually generating carbon dioxide and water, without polluting the environment.

Developed PLA packaging materials

American College Farm brand candy uses PLA natural material packaging film. Its appearance and performance are the same as traditional candy packaging film. It has crystal transparency, excellent kink retention, printability and strength, and has higher barrier property and can be better. Keep the sweet smell.

The United States of America Kageil Shudao polymer company has the world's largest corn-based PLA, and Japan's Mitsui Chemicals company with which it has been in and out of 2002 from the RACEA brand PLA. An artificial sprouts distribution company in Jixian has used RACEA as a new product packaging material. Matsushita Battery Industrial Co., Ltd. has been working with Mitsubishi Plastics since 2002 to replace all packaging materials for a dry battery with PLA.

The Faerch Plastics Company of Denmark invented PLA as a packaging material, including a variety of pastas, meats and salads. The company's current packaging products include plates, bottles, and original processing resins (PS, PP, and PET) that can heat-seal packages.

A German company uses PLA as a raw material to successfully develop a green food cup with a fast natural decomposition function to solve the problem of degradation of disposable plastic packaging. The successfully developed PLA is a polyester polymer that can be extracted from sugar beet fermented liquid to undergo ring-opening polymerization to produce PLA.

In December 2002, the Japanese government issued the "Bioengineering Strategy Outline," proposing that biological raw materials should be used instead of fossil fuel raw materials to prevent global warming. The increase in consumer awareness of environmental protection has also prompted companies to make full use of plastics made from vegetable raw materials.