In spite of the increasing amount of municipal and commercial recycling taking place in the US, the plastics portion of municipal waste continues to grow annually. It is currently reported to be 12-15% by weight. That may change, thanks to new high tech plastics. Under the sponsorship of a business unit of NYSE listed ACX Corporation, and ISIS International, Inc., of Monroe, CT, a blue chip panel of Industrial Opinion Leaders were assembled from the United States and Europe to determine the first significant applications for new non-petroleum-based 'controlled-life' plastics. To date, biodegradable plastics or polymers, as they've historically been termed, have not yet been embraced by industry due to their high cost and limited performance compared to conventional plastics.
"We wanted a very broad mix of industries at this Summit," noted Dick Siegel, ISIS' president. Attending a technology Summit Conference were technology and business executives from fourteen major international plastics-using companies including 3M, Avery Dennison, Becton Dickinson, James River, SC Johnson, McDonald's, The Scotts Company, WL Gore, Cofresco, Printpack, PKL Verpackungssysteme GmbH... each a leading innovator in its field.
According to Summit Panelists, the new plastic appeared to offer the performance characteristics and design freedoms needed to really move it into important applications. "Earlier biodegradable polymers have been lacking performance properties needed in many of the areas where biodegradable or 'limited life' polymers are needed," noted a Panelist.
"If (Heplon) is implemented in the many ways that have been discussed (here at the Summit) it would definitely reduce reliance on landfills," said another Panelist. "I think it's not just another 'biodegradable polymer'... this one has some unexpected additional features which could make it very interesting... I don't know anything comparable," remarked still another.
In the months following the Summit Conference, conducted in late 1996 at Amelia Island Plantation, Florida, management teams from the Summit's sponsor and participating Panelist companies explored application requirements face-to-face in mini-Summit conferences designed to get commercialization rolling.
"As a result of these confidential discussions, the property profiles for Heplon that are needed in Summit-represented industries were made clear and joint technology development and testing programs were planned," according to Peg Neale, one of ISIS' Directors.
Following the mini-Summits, the sponsor began putting the final touches on its first pilot plants intended to produce quantities sufficient to begin product prototyping and testing with many of the Summit companies. According to Dr. Dan Verser, the Sponsor's CEO, "this (Summit) process has really accelerated the job of defining areas of strongest application for these new materials. It also helped us to rapidly establish high level relationships with companies that will be among the first users of Heplon on a global basis."
ACX Technologies manufactures value-added industrial products. Its businesses produce high performance consumer and industrial packaging, and advanced technical ceramics. ACX was spun-out of Adolph Coors Company in 1992 taking with it the ceramics, aluminum, packaging and technology-based developmental businesses previously owned by Adolph Coors Company, among which is the Heplon technology portfolio.
ISIS International, Inc. provides a range of customized, exclusive services to technology-based industrial clients in the United States and Europe that dramatically accelerate commercialization of new or underutilized technology.
Results of ISIS-assisted technology commercialization projects have ranged from $100's of million to over $1 billion in value for its clients. Working closely with client upper management teams, ISIS forms a tight business and market focus and then opens a path for engaging global markets at the "industry opinion leader" level with whom ISIS' clients then form commercial, and often joint development relationships. ISIS-proprietary business development processes include MarketDiscovery, The Summit System and Precision Innovation.
