By Hao Ding, Global Marketing Director, TotalEnergies Corbion
Plastics play an essential role in modern life — from packaging and textiles to construction, healthcare, and mobility — enabling efficiency, safety, and convenience. As the world accelerates toward lower emissions and a circular economy, bioplastics are emerging as the next evolution of plastics: materials that deliver the same trusted performance while offering renewable, low-carbon, and circular solutions.
Even though bioplastics currently represent just around 1 % of global plastics production, their momentum is undeniable. Within the bioplastics cluster, PLA (polylactic acid) stands out — a 100 % biobased, recyclable, and compostable polymer made from renewable resources like sugarcane.
At K 2025 in Düsseldorf — the world’s leading plastics and rubber trade fair — the conversation centered on the real transformation already underway. Under the theme “The Power of Plastics: Green, Smart, Responsible,” Thomas Philipon, CEO TotalEnergies Corbion, joined Plastics Europe’s Expert Talk to explore how bioplastics are reshaping the industry and why collaboration is the key to scaling impact.
Scaling Responsibly: Growth, Regions, and Policy
Global biopolymer production stands at about 4 million tonnes, just 1% of the 400 million tonnes of plastics made each year. Yet within this small share lies tremendous potential. The shift toward renewable materials is already happening — application by application — creating new capacity, circular business models, and a more harmonized ecosystem.
One of PLA’s greatest strengths lies in its feedstock flexibility. Lactic acid — the building block of PLA — can be produced from a variety of locally available renewable resources, such as sugarcane, corn, or other carbohydrate-rich crops. This versatility allows manufacturing to develop wherever suitable feedstocks and market demand converge, enabling responsible, region-specific growth and resilient local value chains that support a more sustainable global plastics ecosystem.
Asia is leading with strong investment, consumer awareness, and government action — particularly in China, where the carbon-neutrality target for 2060 is driving large-scale PLA expansion. Europe, meanwhile, continues to shape market demand through regulation. In Italy, certified compostable plastics are fully integrated into the organic waste system — a clear example of how policy and innovation can work together to close the loop.
Together, these examples show how policy, innovation, and regional ecosystems can reinforce one another — proving that when clear sustainability goals are set, the plastics industry responds with scalable, circular solutions.
Turning Waste Into Perspective
A common question arises: could using crops to make bioplastics compete with the food chain? While food security is a complex, multifaceted issue influenced by distribution, access, and affordability, the share of agricultural output used for bioplastics is extremely small — producing bioplastics like PLA today uses only about 0.013% of global agricultural land.
By contrast, one third of all food produced worldwide never reaches anyone’s plate. If the land associated with this uneaten food were better utilized, there would be more than enough resources to meet multiple needs, including the production of bioplastics.
Moreover, most of this uneaten food ends up in landfills, generating roughly 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions — nearly the same as the exhaust from all cars and trucks combined annually. By responsibly freeing up and using these lands, we can support both food security and renewable material production, creating solutions that reduce waste and emissions while contributing to a circular economy. This demonstrates that sustainable, low-carbon materials can be developed without compromising food security.
Expanding the Boundaries of What’s Possible
“If you’ve heard about PLA and think you know where it’s used — forget about that. We’ve moved on. We can do much more with PLA now.” said Thomas Philipon, CEO of TotalEnergies Corbion.
PLA has evolved far beyond disposable food-service items. Today, its versatility is driving innovation across a wide range of industries:
- 3D Printing: The dominant material in additive manufacturing, offering superior printing speed and high-quality surface finish.
- Nonwovens: High flow PLA designed for meltblown process used in filtration media and wipes.
- Rigid packaging: High melt strength PLA (EPLA, XPLA) for lightweight, foamed applications with a lower carbon footprint.
- Fibers and Textiles: Enabling the development of biobased clothing and high-performance fabrics.
- Automotive and Compounds: Bringing renewable innovation to technical and durable applications.
The bioplastics industry is still young — but evolving rapidly. Across the value chain, companies are collaborating to make bioplastics more capable, sustainable, and accessible at scale, unlocking new opportunities for circular, low-carbon materials.
As Thomas Philipon emphasized: “There are issues, yes — and we should talk about them. But we should also take the value already available today. We have solutions. Let’s use them.
Shaping a Smarter, More Sustainable Future
The future of plastics isn’t about one material replacing another — it’s about building a smarter, more balanced system that combines renewable carbon, circular design, and high performance.
At TotalEnergies Corbion, we believe that bioplastics like Luminy® PLA are a vital part of this transformation — proof that the plastics industry can evolve while preserving what makes it essential: innovation, versatility, and impact.
Watch the full Expert Talk on Bioplastics
Speaker/Host*:
Prof. Thomas Müller-Kirschbaum*, Chief Scientist (Circular Valley)
Mathias Leimbrink, Head of Life Cycle Assesment (Covestro)
Thomas Philipon, CEO (TotalEnergies Carbion)
Belén Monje Martínez, Sustainable Chemistry Cluster Leader (AIMPLAS)