Novamont plans bioplastics manufacturing in the USA

Italian bioplastics producer Novamont has strengthened its position in the USA by setting up Novamont North America. The company is already active in the USA and says it has "strongly contributed to the development of the composting industry in North America, including the formation of the Biodegradable Products Institute". Novamont says the North American composting market has grown significantly in the past decade, "and is now ready to make a big step forward due to higher environmental sensitivity, and increased attention on the economics of waste diversion," according to Tony Gioffre, president of Novamont North America, who is also the former president of the Biodegradable Products Institute, and currently still a BPI board member.
The new Novamont North America will market the company's main product family, Mater-Bi, a compostable and biodegradable family of bioplastics containing renewable resources. It also plans to go further into manufacturing and says it will make significant investments to expand its presence at all levels. "The company's objective is to build an integrated system of agriculture, industry and environment, applying its innovative chemical technologies", says a statement from Novamont. This would involve building a biorefinery in North America.
The formation of a legal American entity is described as a major step in Novamont's strategic development plan in this area of the world, "and constitutes a step forward for the composting industry in North America."
Novamont has an annual production capacity of 80,000 tonnes and sales in 2010 of Eur 88 million. It is heavily R & D focused, and says 30 per cent of its 200 employees work in R & D and that more than 7 per cent of its sales are reinvested in research. The company holds a patent portfolio that includes about 90 patent families and 800 internationally registered patents.