Cereplast Inc. Making Inroads With Renewable Plastics Made From Bio-Based Resins

Here's a fact: most of us use a lot of oil without ever driving a car.

A company near Los Angeles, California, Cereplast Inc. (OTC:CERP), works to change this fact.

A pioneering renewable plastics company, Cereplast Inc. designs and manufactures proprietary bio-based, sustainable plastics created from their cutting-edge breakthrough technology.

This technology produces bio-based resins used to replace a significant portion of the petroleum-based additives in plastics by using natural material from starches such as tapioca, corn, wheat and potatoes.

For example, Safety 1^st - Nature Next uses Cereplast resins in their new line of bio-plastic products including the 3-in-1 potty, booster seats, bathtubs and stools in stores across the nation.

According to Cereplast founder/CEO, Frederic Scheer, petroleum is in almost every product that we use in our daily lives including toys, football helmets, toothbrushes, plastic utensils/dinnerware, nail polish, ice trays, vitamin capsules, contact lenses and electronics. While it takes about 100-million years for the earth to produce one drop of oil, a disposable cup’s lifespan is about 45 minutes, only to be thrown away and sent off to a landfill for hundreds of years.

Cereplast and Scheer expect the U.S. bio-plastics market to top $10 billion in sales by 2020. As of 2007, the U.S. bio-plastics market accounted for approximately $1 billion in sales. Some estimates point to bio-plastics capturing up to 30% of the total plastics market within ten years.

Scheer said the Obama administration’s new green initiatives and increasing consumer demand for compostable and renewable plastics are pushing the market.

“We believe that breakthrough products like our Cereplast Compostables and Cereplast Hybrids are enabling manufacturers to make the switch to environmentally responsible, sustainable packaging,” Scheer said. “Our algae-based bio-plastics, currently under development, will soon open up a whole new source of feedstock and result in a broad range of new applications.”

American consumers, Scheer said, keep pushing major manufacturers and retailers to make the switch to environmentally conscious solutions. Many of the largest retailers have already made in-roads with programs designed to adopt alternative packaging, including Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola.

According to a study by Helmut Kaiser Consultancy, by 2025 Europe will account for 31%, the U.S. 28% and Asia 32% of the total market for bio-plastics. New applications and innovations in the automotive and electronics industries are helping fuel the boom; however, consumer packaging still garners the most attention.

Scheer, an 18-year veteran of the bio-plastics industry, knows the burgeoning market for bioplastics. He became involved in the biodegradable plastics industry in 1994 through Montedison SpA, a large chemical conglomerate operating Novamont SpA, an Italian resin manufacturer and research company. Foreseeing that the demand for biodegradable products in North America would expand rapidly by the end of the decade, Scheer secured the exclusive distribution rights in North America for Mater-Bi resins. Soon thereafter, he began North American distribution of Mater-Bi, a 100% biodegradable resin patented and produced by Novamont.

Cereplast makes the resins for products ranging from plastic cutlery (including the plastic foodservice items used at the Salt Lake City Olympics), to product packaging and common household items.