Europe and beyond

European Bioplastics focuses and promotes its activities on European and member countries’ level. In addition the association operates a global information exchange network following the worldwide economic interest for bioplastics. Numerous countries outside the European Union are actively pursuing the development of bioplastics, yet Europe in particular offers excellent conditions to compete globally for future markets and technologies. These include:

• A highly developed economy and educated society
• Leading global companies in the chemical and plastics industries
• Industrial users with the aim of promoting sustainable development
• Consumers with strong purchasing power and a high degree of environmental awareness
• Legislative and regulatory frameworks that actively promote sustainable development and aligned innovations

However, a trend to be observed is the geographic distribution of production capacities. Europe remains interesting as locations for research and development and also important as sales markets. The establishment of new production capacities, however, is favoured in South America and Asia. European Bioplastics invites European policy makers to convert their declared interest into concrete measures. If Europe wants to profit from growth at all levels of the value chain in the bioplastics industry, it is high time that corresponding decisions are made.