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Future 500 Japan

Bioplastics Gets Boost From Toyota

by Bill Shireman & Erik Wohlgemuth, February 2005

Toyota, the world's No. 2 auto maker, hopes to grow its bioplastics division into a four trillion yen ( billion) business by 2020, and capture two-thirds of the global market for petroleum-free plastics.

At four trillion yen, bioplastics would represent one quarter of Toyota’s total revenues in the business year ending March 2003.

That is quite an ambition for a technology the company admits is still in an early development phase. But Toyota, which pioneered the fast-growing hybrid vehicle niche, has a reputation for following through on its green technology commitments.

Kozaburo Tsukishima, general manager of Toyota's biotechnology and afforestation division, says bioplastics "could really explode as a business, and may have the biggest growth potential out of all of our operations.”

Toyota established its bioplastics unit in 1998 as part of a 50 billion yen venture fund established by then-president Hiroshi Okuda, now Toyota’s chairman. In addition to making bioplastics from natural sources such as sugar cane, corn and tapioca, the division grows flowers and rooftop gardens and produces flour using new technologies.

Already, Toyota is using bioplastics in some new cars, including the Raum and Prius, and supplies the material to Japanese cosmetics maker Shiseido Co and other companies.

"Companies from all sectors have been contacting us, wanting to use bioplastics in their products," he said. Toyota is working with some 60 companies, including office equipment makers such as Fujitsu Ltd and NEC Corp, to supply the environmentally friendly material, he added. "Right now we just don't have enough supply," Tsukishima said.

That’s not true of Toyota’s chief rival in the bioplastics market, NatureWorks LLC, formerly a joint venture of Cargill Dow in the U.S. The NatureWorks plant in Blair, Nebraska uses surplus corn to produce 40 million pounds of bioplastics per year. They have plenty of room to grow – the plant has an annual capacity of 300 million pounds, seven times current sales. But sales are doubling every year, and if that trend continues, the plant could be operating at full capacity by 2007.

By that year, Toyota hopes to bring a 100-million pound plant online, and build global demand for petroleum-free plastics. By 2020, Tsukishima expects “one-fifth of the world's plastic would be bioplastic, equivalent to 30 million tonnes. We want to be supplying 20 million tonnes of bioplastics by 2020, which would amount to about four trillion yen in revenues if we sold it at 200 yen per kilogram," he said.

Toyota’s current bioplastics are made in relatively small batches for automotive applications primarily. The NatureWorks facility is much larger, and produces bioplastics for packaging and retail applications, at prices that are competitive with petroleum-based alternatives.

There are naturally concerns among prospective buyers for any emerging, disruptive technology like bioplastic. These include performance testing to ensure it meets buyers’ stringent quality, durability, and marketing requirements. Additionally, bioplastics are currently made primarily from dextrose derived from corn, and roughly 20% of the corn market is from genetically modified sources. However, snack chips, soft drinks and candy bars are much larger users of corn syrup.

The environmental benefits of transitioning from petroleum-based plastics to petroleum-free plastics are potentially immense. NatureWorks estimates that its manufacturing process uses 20 to 50 percent less fossil fuels to produce its bioplastic with lower net greenhouse gas emissions than traditional plastics. Additionally, bioplastics are fully compostable, breaking down into carbon dioxide and water and recent tests demonstrated the feasibility of separating recycled bioplastic from PET plastic in the recycled waste stream. Petroleum plastics can’t be composted, nor can they be economically recycled.

The biodegradability of bioplastics offers interesting opportunities for waste reduction in the environment. For example, Motorola recently enlisted materials company Pvaxx Research and Development to develop cellphone casings that contain seeds that could grow into sunflowers once discarded and biodegraded.

With the growing demand for bioplastic and the steps being to taken by both Toyota and NatureWorks to address stakeholder and customer needs and concerns, the technology could be well-positioned for rapid market adoption and growth.

Comments

 Comment

Put more Info That High School Students (Freshman)and Use

Posted by Anonymous (unknown) on Tuesday, January 25, 2005 at 03:18:40 (GMT-0500)

 Comment

isnt the issue really- in terms of car manufacturing the need for materials that are not only bio but also smart? materials that can cut down the aount of people injured in car accidents. self adapting, materials with memories that do also biodegrade over time.

Posted by vicki (vickididsdon@hotmail.com) on Monday, April 18, 2005 at 06:46:40 (GMT-0400)

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