Henrique Ribas and Francisco Soares at Greentech 2018.
Compostable twine
For more than 35 years the Portuguese twine manufacturer Exporplás has produced all kinds of twines, both for agriculture and horticulture. The development of a biological compostable twine took them years of research and development. “The flexibility is important: a twine shouldn’t disturb the growth of the plants. Also for the comfort of the workers it is important that the twine is not too rough to work with”, Henrique explains. “A lot of thought is put into the development of the product, but also into the process of making it. The bio twine, made of PLA, is as reliable as the synthetic twine which we make from PP. It has an unbeatable performance due to its unique characteristics.”
Strength
The strength of the material is always an important subject: on one hand you want the twine to be strong enough for heavy loaded plants, but on the other hand it should compost well. The bio twine will compost within 20 weeks in perfect controlled conditions.
According to Henrique, this is only the beginning. “With the current attention for the environment, the ongoing development in the industry and the mere costs being small in reference to the benefits of the bio-twine, we are convinced biodegradable materials will become the standard.”
More information:
Exporplás