Teijin Frontier announces global availability of biodegradable BIOFRONT® PLA resin

BIOFRONT® resin aligns with Teijin Frontier’s THINK ECOR environmental strategy and joins the company’s wide range of sustainable materials and products. Teijin Frontier plans to continue developing biodegradable materials to help reduce the environmental impact of plastics.

Features and benefits of BIOFRONT® resin

The resin’s biodegradation accelerator promotes hydrolysis and speeds up material consumption and decomposition by bacteria and fungi compared to PLA polymers without additives. BIOFRONT® resin exhibits rapid biodegradation performance even in marine, riverine and soil environments, where there are fewer bacteria and fungi than in high- temperature, high-humidity composting systems. Further, the decomposition period can be controlled by adjusting the loading and incorporation parameters of the accelerator. Accordingly, the decomposition period can be adjusted to the required lifetime.

Another advantage of BIOFRONT® resin is its ability to be processed like conventional PLA polymer resins used in films and injection-molded and extruded products. It can also be used for fibers in textiles and non-woven fabrics.

From the standpoint of sustainability, BIOFRONT® PLA resin is expected to help reduce microplastics, thanks to its accelerated biodegradation rate, and to reduce CO2 emissions during the product lifecycle since it is made from plant-derived raw materials.