Patent data reveals consumer goods companies have high bioplastics innovation rate
Europe and the US are leading innovation in plastic recycling and alternative plastics technologies, a new study published today by the European Patent Office (EPO) shows.
Europe and the US each accounted for about 30 per cent of patenting activity worldwide in these sectors between 2010 and 2019, or 60 per cent combined. Within Europe, the UK, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium stand out for its specialisation in both plastic recycling and bioplastic technologies, while Germany as the top patent applicant among European countries, lacks specialisation in these fields.
The Patents for tomorrow’s plastics: Global innovation trends in recycling, circular design and alternative sources study also reveals that in the domain of alternative plastics, the cosmetics and detergents industry is the sector innovating most intensively in bioplastics, with the UK’s Unilever among the top ten patent applicants in this field.1
EPO President António Campinos said: “While plastics are essential to the economy, plastic pollution is threatening ecosystems all over the planet. The good news is that innovation can help us to address this challenge by enabling the transition to a fully circular model. This study offers key insights into a range of promising new technologies that foster the reusability, recyclability and bio-degradability of plastic products. It highlights Europe’s contribution to innovation in this sector, but shows that much more can be done to turn pioneering European research into inventions and to bring them to market.”
The study presents a comprehensive analysis of the innovation trends for the period 2010 to 2019 that are driving the transition to a circular economy for plastics and looks at the number of international patent families (IPFs), each of which represents an invention for which patent applications have been filed at two or more patent offices worldwide. It shows that of all recycling technologies, the fields of chemical and biological recycling methods generated the highest level of patenting activity in the period under review.
In the area of bioplastic inventions, the study finds that healthcare is the most active industry with more than 19,000 IPFs in 2010-19. However, it is the cosmetics and detergents sector that innovates most intensively in this field.
The study highlights significant potential in alternative technologies focused on new plastic designs for easier recycling. These technologies have potential applications in aerospace, construction, transportation, wind turbines and microelectronics. The rapid growth of patenting in these fields is almost entirely driven by innovation in dynamic covalent bonding – an approach allowing for novel designs of durable plastic materials capable of self-repairing.2 While Japan has a strong lead in this field, most of the inventions coming from universities and public research organisations in this field originate from European and US research institutions.
The report also finds that in the chemical and biological recycling fields, fundamental research plays a much more significant role than in other plastic recycling technologies, with nearly 20 per cent of inventions originating from universities and public research organisations.3
In terms of geographic location of these universities and public research organisations, Europe and the US have a clear lead, each with 29 per cent of those IPFs stemming from research institutions.
The report shows that Europe is the only major innovation hub to contribute a larger share of the chemical and biological recycling inventions from upstream research (29%) than overall in the field (26%). Meanwhile, US start-ups and scale-ups generated four times as many IPFs in chemical and biological recycling as their European counterparts (338 v. 84). This suggests that Europe, despite being particularly active in fundamental research, is not exploiting its full potential when it comes to transferring these technologies to industry.
1. Figure: Origins of inventions related to the circular plastics industry, 2010-19)
2. Figure: IPFs related to related to design for easier recycling and dynamic covalent bonds, 1990–2019
3. Figure: Upstream research in recycling technologies, 2010-19
