Luibeg have decided to publish the recent articles relating to the debate between European Bioplastics and the Oxo-Biodegradable Plastics Association as we believe it is most important that the Oxo-Biodegradable Plastics Association and the users of the oxo-biodegradable technology receive as much support as possible.
We strongly endorse the statements made by the OPA and Symphony Environmental and seriously question the validy of the statements made by European Bioplastics, who as already stated, operate as a lobby for the Hydro biodegradable or "compostable" industry.

As far as India is concerned, Luibeg have discovered considerable confusion amongst manufacturers and also Official Government Agencies, who are now seriously looking at becoming involved with what is a very new area of technology in order to deal with the growing and urgent requirement to solve the plastic problems in that Country. There is absolutely no requirement for composting in India, as the infrastructure is just not available and would be far too complicated to introduce.
There are enough problems with waste management - some of these arguments have already been reported on this site. Having said this, the Authorities have been misled in to believing or thinking that the only legislation or Standards for which all bio-degradable (including oxo-biodegradable) plastics should be tested under, are those suitable only for composting/hydro biodegradable plastics.
Equally, India will always be a buyers' market at every level, from the buying of raw materials and production, through to the wholesaler and end user, there is quite frankly no room for any product which costs considerably more to manufacture and through misconception, will not solve any of the problems in that Country!

This raises the question:
who is responsible for feeding this misleading information, thus creating the confusion over testing standards in India?

We are very pleased to say that when the two technologies have been fully explained, the manufacturers and the Government Agencies immediately realize that the only technology to use, is the oxo-biodegradable technology. Once the full evidence has been put forward and studied, including all supporting test reports and endorsements, there is an immediate realization that the costly alternatives of hydro and other materials are not and never will be suitable for India.

There is a further misconception - some people believe that with a vast land area and massive population, India is an easy target to exploit!! They automatically think that India can grow substantial quantities of suitable crops to fuel the production of hydro plastics and at a very low cost by taking advatage of the vast numbers of low paid workers, thereby abusing the trust and honesty of a genuine and highly motivated Nation.
Anyone who sadly believes that this is in fact the moral route to go down, in order to extract substantial profits for the originators and promoters in the West, is very wrong indeed!!
A prominent Indian business-man recently said: "it is very clear that in the West, some people and organizations see India as a land of mud huts and elephants!" ... and "think that they can take advantage of this, only because of a distinct lack of understanding as a result of their ignorance of India, its citizens, history and culture"...."such people and organizations are not welcome here."

The hydro plastics technology and products will never succeed in India and we will strongly attack any attempt by this lobby/Industry to discredit the oxo-biodegradable technology.