The global production capacity of biodegradable plastics will grow to 975,000 mt/year in 2017, up around 1% on the year, Nguyen Nhu Khue, managing director at Lotus Chemical Technology, said Friday in a paper presented at Specialty Packaging Films, Asia in Singapore.
The growth is in line with the percentage increase seen in 2016, due to growing demand of bioplastics, he added.
However, when speaking about the bioplastics industry in Vietnam, he said the sector still has a long way to go as only 30 out of 400 plastic converter companies have an environmental tax exemption, proving they can produce biodegradable shopping bags.
Vietnam has had an environmental tax on polyethylene shopping bags since 2012, set at Vietnam Dong 40,000/kg of finished product.
More than half of the bioplastics go into applications in packaging, he added.
The two day conference ends today.
