One of 10 products selected to receive the 2010 Environmental Stewardship Award from The Plastics Environmental Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), is the path breaking new additive that turns polyvinyl chlorides into biodegradable polymers.

BIOtech Products, LLC is being recognized for the development of organometallic additives (BIOchem™) that make PVC and some other plastics biodegradable in biologically active landfills, while retaining or improving normal service life and processing of the plastic materials.

BIOflex, engineered using BIOchem™, has been the first truly environmentally friendly, biodegradable PVC, before which, PVC had been known to be immortal in the landfill & no degradation was found even after decades of landfill burial. BIOflex PVC is claimed to be landfill biodegradable under the conditions as simulated by ASTM D5526. Due to this breakthrough additive technology and also the huge market behind (PVC being one the main polymer used in the world), the BIOflex technology has been patented (filed in 2005 and granted in 2008). One of the current applications of such biodegradable PVC is outdoor PVC signage, made by Ultraflex Systems Inc. Environmental concern is influencing companies to take steps towards building a sustainable image, so it is not surprising to see leading companies like Disney requiring the use of BIOflex products in all their signs.



In order for any additive to work practically as a biodegradant on conventional non-biobased polymers (which are the bulk of all polymers consumed), the additive cannot allow degradation in the presence of oxygen and light because it would obviate the function of the conventional plastic product for any long term use. BIOchem™ works under anaerobic conditions by ‘micro-decomposition by micro-organisms’ and not by ‘oxo-degradation or other similar process’, thereby addressing the need to bring conventional thermoplastics into the realm of biodegradability with the caveat that the BIOchem™ containing product has to be disposed into controlled anaerobic landfill operations.

The additive works, although not completely understood, in part by inducing nano-hydrophilicity to a hydrophobic polymer thus providing a path for water so that anaerobic microbes can colonize the hydrocarbon given the controlled landfill conditions of darkness, no oxygen, anaerobic microbes, and high water content that stimulate the micro-organisms to secrete an enzyme that leads to chain scission, lowering molecular weight to the point of complete vulnerability to micro-organisms. At this point the micro-organisms are able to metabolise the plastic further and produce valuable methane gas and soluble chloride fertilizer. The degradation is elemental and therefore the technology can also be viewed as sustainable.