NPE Conference Highlights Degradable Polymers Innovation Nov 28, 2005

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With significant interest growing in degradable and biobased polymers, and many new technologies being developed to produce them, the Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. (SPI) plans its second international symposium on these materials just prior to the 2006 NPE show, the world's largest plastics trade show.

The International Degradable Plastics Symposium: Status of Biobased and Synthetic Polymer Technology will take place in Chicago June 14-17, 2006, and be followed June 19-23 in Chicago by NPE 2006: The International Plastics Showcase, also sponsored by SPI.

Co-sponsors of the symposium with SPI are the Bio/Environmental Polymer Society (BEPS) and the Ninth World Conference on Biodegradable Polymers and Plastics (BDPP). Lynne Harris, SPI's vice president of science and technology, said presentations will cover technology, markets, applications, and legal and regulatory matters.

SPI conducted the first U.S. symposium on degradable technologies in 1987. "While our first symposium was well received, degradable polymers were still in their infancy," Harris noted. "Since the last NPE in 2003, there has been a sudden burst of innovation in degradable polymers, spurred on by the prospect of regulatory mandates as well as preferences in some sectors of the consumer market. SPI and its co-sponsors are organizing the symposium in recognition of an enormous 'need to know' in the plastics industry and among many government agencies."

Major topics anticipated for the International Degradable Plastics Symposium, June 14-17, 2006 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.: