Mar 182 min read

Bamboo Replace Plastic | Bamboo Fiber Leads Trend in Sustainable Tableware

Recently, the annual China’s Two Sessions are held in Beijing, at which many representatives focused on “Bamboo Replace Plastic Initiative” and put forward related proposal, expecting to further promote the bamboo products and development of bamboo industry. From To-go food to daily use, bamboo fiber has already led the trend in sustainable tableware!

Biodegradable Tableware Market

According to a research, China’s disposable tableware market is growing, with the market size increasing at around 12% per year from 2007 to 2017, and is expected to continue to grow at a rate of 11.6% per year over the next five years, to a market size of around 37.69 billion yuan by the end of 2023.

Under the growing market, biodegradable tableware that replaces plastic is beginning to emerge, and according to Future Market Insights, the global market size for biodegradable tableware made from biomaterials will grow at CAGR of 6.5% between 2022 and 2030, reaching $18 billion in 2030. Therefore, driven by the market and the policy of reduction and replacement of plastics, both bamboo fiber based pulp molded tableware and bamboo fiber biopolymer tableware have a broad development prospect in the future.

Advantages of Bamboo Fiber Tableware

In bamboo fiber tableware, there are two main categories of bamboo fiber based pulp molded tableware and bamboo fiber biopolymer tableware. altPlus Fiber provides two brands of full product solutions.

PurBam™ - Pulp Molded Tableware

Pulp molded tableware is one of the most popular biodegradable tableware in the market. PurBam™ uses pure bamboo biomaterials and can be composed with sugarcane and tapioca as needed. PurBam™ pulp-molded tableware is both cost-effective and eco-friendly, with excellent physical properties by high standards of processing and manufacturing.

BaMatrix™ - Bamboo Fiber Biopolymer Tableware

BaMatrix™ uses scalable fiber extraction and unique compounding technology which enables higher bamboo fiber ratios, up to 40%. BaMatrix™ tableware is durable, high-performance and recyclable.

Both PurBam™ and BaMatrix™ tableware meets the stringent health and safety standards set by national and international organizations, including GB18006.1-1999, FDA, and European SGS standards, can be used in different food categories as necessary. Compared with traditional plastic tableware, these products are healthier, more eco-friendly, durable, recyclable and comply with the concept of sustainability and low-carbon development.

As can be seen from the figure below, the plastic lunch box in H shows no change after 60 days, while the pulp molded cup in G degrades almost completely after 60 days.