8th PLA World Congress again a great success

Experts and interested attendees met in Munich, Germany and online in this unique hybrid conference. The participants came from 24 countries around the globe, from North Africa to Scandinavia, from North and South America to South Korea and Australia.

All topics around PLA were discussed, at times indeed controversely:
Feedstock for PLA, such as sugars from different sources, but also lignocellulosic feedstock and even municipal solid waste as a source were introduced and discussed. Gypsum and acid-resistant yeasts were items in the discussions about the production of PLA. And of course, announcements about future PLA production capacities caught the attention of the audience.

As everyone knows the limitations of “pure” PLA, a wide array of measures was discussed to improve the properties of PLA compounds. Be it blending with other biopolymers such as PBAT or PHA, adding lignin as a filler or additives to enhance the biodegradability in soil, home compost or even marine environments were on the agenda. Even PLA-Polyether block copolymers were introduced.

Applications are certainly not limited to packaging. Fibres and Nonwovens were discussed, as well as 3D-printing in combination with AI, agricultural applications and durable applications, where biodegradability is not an issue and finally “PLA paper”.

Other topics like testing and certification or the overall discussion about microplastics rounded off the event.

The feedback of attendees and speakers was overall very positive. “Very useful information”, “good contacts and excellent networking”, “next time we’ll plan to be a presenter”, and so on.

The whole event was recorded and access to the videos of all presentations and Q&A sessions is still available for purchase.