Michael Okoroafor of Heinz will make the keynote presentation at the new event, BioPlastek 2011 Forum on Bioplastics Today and Tomorrow. The Forum will take place on June 27-29, 2011 at The Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. The title of Okoroafor's presentation will be "Leveraging Creative Biobased Packaging to Drive Brand Differentiation." 

Heinz's transition begins this year with the switch to the Coca-Cola developed material for its 20-oz ketchup bottles, which account for about 20% of its total ketchup sales. MEG and purified terephthalic acid (PTA) are the building blocks of polyethylene terephthalate (PET). For Coke's PlantBottle, ethanol derived from sugarcane is fermented to create the bio-MEG. According to Coke, these bottles are the first beverage bottles that include content derived from renewable resources that can be recycled in standard PET recycling streams. 

In addition to the presentation by Heinz, the inaugural BioPlastek 2011 event will include speakers from Rubbermaid, Campbell Soup, Mountain Valley Spring Water, Pepperidge Farm, the U.S. Army Natick Labs, Kodak, Xerox Canada, Canadian General Tower, The Woodbridge Group, International Nonwovens and Disposables Association (INDA), and Auto21. Attendees will be able to participate in applications-specific breakout sessions on automotive, packaging, durable goods, nonwovens/textiles and additives.

In addition there will be joint sessions on market and business strategies, environmental issues, emerging technologies, and a capstone session on "How To Make it Happen."

More information on the event can be found at its website, http://bioplastek.com. —PlasticsToday Staff