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AF-COLOR Earns OK Compost Seal

Bio Now Comes in Color!

Today it’s hard to imagine life without plastics, particularly when it comes to packaging materials. But this also means that plastics make up a major portion of global waste production. Alternatives are needed to reduce environmental pollution, especially in the world’ oceans.

Plastics applications manufactured from bio-based polymers are already quite common in our daily lives, without our even noticing it. Single-use carry bags, waste bags and rubbish sacks are currently the most common applications for biopolymers. Because wall thickness as specified in DIN EN 13432 is an important criterion for the polymer’s degradation rate (requirement > 90 % within 180 days), film applications must be optimally designed.

Biopolymer pigmentation is growing in importance and is accomplished today almost exclusively using color masterbatches made up of polymer carrier materials and corresponding pigments.

Colored biopolymers are also used in the food packaging industry, to manufacture meat trays and disposable cutlery, for instance. But applications for biopolymers are extremely versatile and meet the requirements specified by the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The defining standard in Europe is DIN EN 13432, within which the relevant suppliers are required to maneuver by means of specified tests. The certification authorities themselves (Vinçotte, DIN CERTCO) also have similar laboratories that carry out these tests.

»We can now maneuver freely within the certified pigment pool to realise any number of different Vinçotte-certified color adjustments in a range of colors and blacks«

Dirk Schöning, Sales and Distribution Manager at AF-COLOR

The content of non-biodegradable filler materials is limited by DIN EN 13432 to 5 %, maximum, or 1 % for each individual filler material. The heavy-metal content, primarily in packaging applications, is also regulated within this standard.

On May 18, 2015, AF-COLOR, a branch of AKRO-PLASTIC GmbH, successfully completed Vinçotte certification of its AF-Eco® product range, thereby earning the “OK compost” seal. AF-COLOR will bear the certification number S467.