State of Sustainability Report: Biodegradable Edition

Biodegradables are raw materials comprising at least 20% bio-based carbon content such as soil, water, marine-classified polymers, additives or compounds. Because of this carbon content, they can decompose or degrade into water, CO₂, and biomass over time. Increasing the use of such materials is critical to creating a more circular economy, but can require significant changes to how things are done today.  

Fifty-eight percent of respondents reported currently using biodegradable materials, giving it the third-least common rate of adoption of the eight sustainability areas measured in this survey. Another 22% intend to introduce biodegradables into their processes in the next three years. That leaves one in five who have no plans to use biodegradable. 

Use of biodegradable materials varies widely by country, with Mexico reporting a soaring 90% adoption rate. Brazilians and Germans also report high rates of biodegradable materials use, at 69% and 63% respectively. On the other end of the spectrum, among countries with enough responses to draw any conclusions, only 26% of Italians reported incorporating biodegradable materials.  

Companies choose biodegradable materials most often for their environmental impact (29%), or in response to customer and consumer demand (27%). 

Technical performance and regulatory compliance play significant but lesser roles, with 14% and 11% of respondents naming them the primary drivers of biodegradables use respectively.  

While competitive advantage was rarely cited as the primary driver of biodegradable use, it’s clear that biodegradables do provide such an edge: nearly half of respondents named competitive advantage as a value-add of biodegradables. 

Regulatory compliance and labelling also appeared as significant areas of added value. 

Pricing is the greatest challenge companies face in using biodegradable materials, with 41% of respondents naming it as such. Concerns around pricing are especially high in France (64% of respondents) and Brazil (57%). 

The functionality and availability of these materials are also notable challenges. Twenty-five percent and 23% of respondents who are already using biodegradable materials called these their greatest challenges with this category of sustainable materials. 

While functionality concerns appeared around the world, availability challenges differed quite a bit from country to country. Fifty-six percent of Spanish respondents cited availability as the greatest challenge of using biodegradables, while no respondents from France or Italy did so. 

There is notable variance in how companies of different sizes ranked these challenges, which is further explored in the next sections.

The most common reason that companies that intend to use biodegradables have not yet adopted these materials is a lack of good alternatives in their industries. Forty percent of respondents included this as a factor, making renewable source materials the only category where a lack of viable alternatives was more significant. 

"At the moment, we do not see high volumes of biodegradable materials becoming available for industrial sectors,” says Alexandre Tarantino, Industrial Solutions Business Unit Manager, IMCD Brazil. “As the demand for biodegradables rises, so will production, therefore tipping the scales on the prices."

A variety of other factors played lesser but still-significant roles: price point (cited by 28% of respondents), lack of customer/consumer demand (28%), problems of technical performance (26%), and not knowing which materials to use (21%).

Those who are not yet using biodegradable materials but intend to in the near future cite the same motivations as the organisations that are already using these materials: customer/consumer demand (34%) and environmental impact (26%). 

Biodegradable use is significantly more widespread in the Americas than in EMEA at present, with 72% of respondents from the Americas reporting that their organisations currently use these materials, compared to just 50% of respondents from EMEA. 

Additionally, 28% of EMEA respondents have no plans to introduce biodegradables in the near future—compared to just 8% in the Americas. 

Why could this be? Though customer / consumer demand and environmental impact were top drivers across both regions, variance in other reported drivers and challenges of biodegradable adoption reveal several possibilities. 

People in the Americas named the following as drivers for biodegradable use much more often than their counterparts in EMEA did: technical performance (17% compared to 5%); regulatory compliance (15% compared to 5%); and competitive advantage (17% compared to 8%). Meanwhile, EMEA respondents were twice as likely to cite customer / consumer demand as the main factor, compared to those in the Americas (40% compared to 20%). 

Nearly 30% of EMEA respondents who have adopted biodegradables called availability their greatest challenge, compared to less than 20% in the Americas. 

Additionally, 47% of EMEA respondents who intend to start using biodegradables report that a lack of alternatives prevents their use of biodegradable materials today. The corresponding figure in the Americas is 37%. 

Company size is a significant factor in the challenges that accompany the use of biodegradable materials. Most notably, while price is the greatest challenge companies face in this area generally, it is not an issue at the largest companies—no respondents from businesses with over 1,000 employees currently using biodegradables cited price as a challenge. Similarly, less than 10% cited it as a reason that they had not yet begun using these materials. 

Not many companies with fewer than 1,000 employees call measurement their chief challenge, presumably because they are all still working to address these other issues. However, more than half of the largest companies report measurement as their chief challenge with biodegradables. It is likely that these businesses have the resources to address challenges of budget, availability and functionality—and are now looking for a way to better measure impact and prove value. 

When survey respondents were asked to rank the predicted impact of all eight sustainability areas over the next few years, biodegradables landed in fourth place, after renewable source materials, materials for health and safety, and CO₂ reduction. 

Whether or not biodegradable materials will be the most impactful sustainability priority, there is clearly room to move the needle and increase the proportion of companies using these materials beyond the current 58%. But to do so, the supply of high-performing biodegradable alternatives needs to be increased, especially in EMEA. 

Additionally, there is a disconnect between where we stand today and what’s possible with biodegradable materials in industrial sectors. Currently, just 16% of respondents consider themselves experts in biodegradable materials. This leaves opportunities for suppliers and industry thought leaders, IMCD included, to bridge the gap.