invicta plastics uses cnn biohybrids

Invicta Plastics using CNN biohybrids. Looks like they're getting close.


Date: 25th October 2011

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Leicester-based moulder Invicta Plastics has unveiled a range of bar ware and point-of-sale products based on Biohybrid materials which, with an incorporation rate of up to 50%, are claimed to significantly cut carbon footprint – halving it in the best cases.

The range includes ice buckets and trays in both polystyrene and polypropylene. The Biohybrids will accept digital printing for branding and decoration to as high a quality as conventional materials, according to Invicta.

The launch on 24 October was fronted by Invicta Group CEO the Countess of Onslow, at Clandon Park, Surrey, the ancestral seat of the Earls of Onslow.

The Countess commented: “These products are fully recyclable by conventional methods, and this has been independently verified in testing by Smithers Rapra. In some cases, disposal to landfill can be completely eradicated. The products can often be produced at no extra cost.

“We would particularly like to thank our clients and R&D partners Diageo, Coca Cola and Procter & Gamble.”

The products are moulded from blends of Cardia Biohybrid materials with conventional polymers. Biohybrids are compounds based on Dent Corn – a maize byproduct from the animal feed industry which is higher in starch and lower in sugar than table sweetcorn. Plastribution was appointed in March as the UK sole distributor of Cardia Biohybrids.

As well as injection moulding, compounds including Cardia Biohybrids can be used on existing equipment in blow moulding, extrusion, coatings, and in films.

The Countess was frank in acknowledging that perfecting Biohybrid products is still a work in progress: “With polystyrene in particular, there is still a tradeoff between bio content and the attainability of a high gloss finish. More generally, we haven’t quite nailed the functionality/sustainability balance.”

She enlarged on Invicta’s “green” culture: “Our passion for sustainability is nothing new – we’ve had a small in-house recycling plant since the company’s foundation in 1946. Much of our profit is recycled in R&D – for instance, we were the first company in the world to demonstrate injection moulding of recycled PET.”