Meredian celebrates grand opening of bioplastics plant

Meredian Inc., a privately held biopolymer manufacturer, hosted a grand opening event for its polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) biopolymers plant in late October. The event provided Meredian's invited guests with the chance to view the largest PHA production facility in the world.

Demand for bioplastics is growing rapidly, and the use of bioplastics in packaging alone is expected to increase at an annual rate of greater than 15 percent for the next two decades. Following the successful startup of this initial production facility, Meredian plans to continue to grow its output in an effort to maintain pace with global customer demand.

“Meredian PHA provides value to our customers by way of its many attributes and performance capabilities. Additionally, we can compete with traditional petro-based plastics on price, based upon our cost effective production systems,” says Blake Lindsey, President and Co-founder of Meredian. “Our PHA resins will be made using a technology Meredian acquired from P&G in 2007. We have spent the last three years confirming production systems and efficiencies while jointly developing specific end-use applications with our strategic customer partners."

Meredian PHA expects to recieve food contact approval for its PHA products and is fully certified by leading third party firms for meeting strict ASTM biodegradation requirements including marine water conditions. Meredian supports its technology with a global patent portfolio of over 150 patents for this innovative, highly functional biopolymer plastic material.

“The Meredian fermentation process utilizes sustainably produced renewable plant derived feedstocks to create PHA,” added Lindsey. “The production of PHA is not only safe for the environment, but we are producing a product that will address many of the health and human safety concerns found in certain packaging materials today.”