Technology

Harmlessly oxo-biodegrade plastic products in a programmable cost-effective manner with our Reverte additive technology.

Two of today’s most pressing environmental concerns are:

• the proliferation of plastic litter
• higher food costs and food shortages due to the diversion of cropland to produce biofuels and polylactic acid based plastics.

Banning plastic packaging or using corn or other food crops to make it is simply not a viable solution! It is shortsighted, as it ignores the devastating side effects that can already be seen globally in higher food prices, resulting in serious social unrest. It fails to address our planet's environmental and green needs.

Oxobioplast's Reverte™ produces a plastic product with equivalent performance characteristics as its conventional counterpart, is extremely cost competitive, and allows for programmable degradation. This results in a product that will totally and harmlessly disintegrate in multiple environments, commencing at a predetermined time. Oxo-biodegradable products are made with minimal cost increase and more importantly without impacting the cost or availability of food stocks.

Reverte™ Oxo-Biodegradables

Reverte™ is a product line of resin additives producing a controlled and safe oxo-biodegradable effect to standard polyethylene and polypropylene products. Reverte™ can be used in consumer packaging and many other applications including agricultural mulch films, food packaging (PE, BOPP, PET and CPP) and check out bags (HDPE, LDPE), to name a few. Reverte™ can be used to make any plastic product with an expected useful lifespan from six months to five years, Long enough to accommodate supply chains, retail warehouse, shelf durability and the end consumer use of product before it begins to oxo-biodegrade.

The Oxobioplast Advantage Using Reverte™

Oxobioplast's ReverteTM not only provides a viable alternative to banning plastic packaging, but also offers the following advantages:

• Reverte™ causes plastic to oxo-biodegrade until it becomes only CO2, H20 and biomass. It does not leave fragments of petro-polymers in the soil.
• Additional product cost is minimal, since only a small amount of additive is required (generally 1%) and existing manufacturing equipment and processes are used without modification. In contrast, starch based solutions for plastic manufacturing require costly changes to manufacturing equipment and workforce retraining.
• Reverte™ avoids the emission of methane.
• Discarded Reverte™ made products can be economically recycled, which is not the case with other polylactic and some other plastic wastes.
• Can be made from regrind and recyclate while the starch based plastics cannot.
• Greater tensile strength than starch based plastics.
• Leak proof while starch based plastics can leak.
• No specialized storage or handling requirements.
• Oxo-biodegrades in multiple environments vs. the starch based plastics that will on degrade in an Industrial Composting Facility.
• The time for commencement of the Reverte™ oxo-biodegradation can be programmed into a product. In contrast, the breakdown timeframe for starch based plastics is both uncontrollable and unpredictable.
• No genetically modified ingredients or the possibility of genetically undesirable strains, from corn or wheat utilized to create starch based plastics.
• Can be incinerated with high energy recovery while starch based products are incinerated with a lower calorific value.
• Uses no fertilizers, pesticides or water in its manufacturing vs the starch based method as the raw materials for it are grown, using valuable agricultural land.
• Not limited by the availability of foodstock and does nothing to reduce the amount of food stock available.
• Taking forested land and converting it into fields of genetically modified crops to produce starch based plastic contributes to further reductions in the biodiversity of our planet.
• The base resins used in plastic manufacturing are made from byproducts of oil refining that would otherwise be flared off and wasted.

Why Reverte™?

As our global population expands resources both on the earth and below the ground become finite and limiting. Wise usage of these resources will allow us to sustain our planet for our children and our children’s children.

After all, this is what environmental awareness is all about – our mission to make this planet as livable an environment as it was left by our ancestors for us.

In our age of industrialization man has gone “gung ho” using whatever resources lay at his disposal. Many of these resources are now becoming finite and limited and future growth must be done prudently, and wisely and with environmental impact in mind.

There is an extensive problem with plastic litter. It fouls the environment and remains for long periods of time. The best attributes of plastic – tensile strength and durability are also its downfall. Clearly a means must be developed to create a plastic product having the property of high tensile strength yet at the same time have the means to degrade to simple safe organic materials when its time of utility is over.

The other issue of our time is the use of our precious water, land and fertilizer resources to create fuels, container materials and other items when this land should be used to grow crops. As this continues and less land is used to grow food the cost of food will continue to increase. In so doing poverty and malnutrition will increase. Civil unrest in urban centers such as Haiti are a harbinger of what is to come if we as a global community do not address these issues immediately.

Oxobioplast has developed a solution to address both of these problems. The use of Reverte™ as an additive in the production of plastic provides the safest, most cost effective method of dealing with the above issues. It produces an environmentally safe, strong and biodegradable plastic for a minimal cost with no impact on the cost or availability of foodstock.

Technological Innovation

Wells Plastics Limited is the preferred partner for technological innovation by many leading plastic processing companies. Additionally they are often approached by forward thinking chemical producers, launching new products into the plastics industry. These same capabilities are available to Oxobioplast and its customers.

Wells’ technical staff, working ‘hand in hand’ with Oxobioplast, enables us to rapidly prototype new formulations or ‘tweak’ existing ones to meet our customers’ needs. Its fully equipped laboratory conducts extensive in house testing of our customer’s trial products and offers them a first rate sampling service.