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Sealed Air has pledged to focus its green efforts on lightweighting its films as it became the latest major packaging player to express doubts over biodegradable plastics.

Speaking at the Emballage show in Paris yesterday (18 November), Hélios Ruiz, marketing director for Sealed Air's European shrink packaging business; said that oxo-biodegradable films had more value as a PR message than as a tool to bring real environmental benefits.

"We are not going into biodegradable films, but focusing on source reduction;" he said.

"Oxo-biodegradable film is not the answer. You need light and oxygen [for it to biodegrade but in landfill there is neither."

Ruiz added: "We would rather make an impact on reducing the materials than have a communications story."

Instead, he said, Sealed Air was pushing lightweighting for its films. He revealed the company is working on a film that is 11 microns thick that would have the same quality and performance as a standard 19 micron film.

This new product, due to launch next year, would add to the 11-micron-thick Cryovac D955, which, Sealed Air claims, already has the properties of standard 15-micron rivals.

Sealed Air is, however, experimenting with starch-based materials and biodegradable PLA but, Ruiz said, does not plan to commercialise them in the near future.

Ruiz was speaking as Sealed Air held an open-house event at its Packforum showroom in Villepinte, north-east Paris, to coincide with the nearby Emballage show.

His comments will add fuel to widespread scepticism about the environmental benefits of the growing range of biodegradable plastics.

Major producers of the material, such as Natureworks, have been working hard to spread the message about their products' environmental and commercial benefits.

However, buyers and users have expressed serious doubts over the compostable materials, including many major supermarkets who have said that they will not use them.