Metabolix Announces that Mirel™ Bioplastics is Selected by Heritage Plastics for New BioTuf™ Compostable Film
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 15, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Metabolix Inc. (NASDAQ: MBLX) today announced that Telles, its joint venture with Archer Daniels Midland Company that produces Mirel bioplastics, has entered an agreement to supply Mirel resin to Heritage Plastics Inc. for the production of BioTuf compostable film. Heritage Bag Company, the largest U.S. manufacturer of compostable trash bags, can liners and kitchen compost bags, is working in conjunction with Heritage Plastics to develop a new line of BioTuf Compostable Bags using Mirel.
Frank Ruiz, Research Director of Heritage Plastics and Heritage Bags, said: "The diversion of organic waste from landfills to composting facilities will require hundreds of millions of compostable bags and trash bin liners annually for hauling away discarded food scraps from restaurants, hotels and other large institutions, and this market is growing at over 15% per year."
Mirel is a family of biobased, sustainable and biodegradable plastics that provides an excellent alternative to traditional, petroleum-based plastics. Mirel will biodegrade in a wide range of environments including soil, home compost, industrial compost, wetlands, rivers and oceans.
"Mirel is a new high performance biobased and biodegradable component of our BioTuf compostable compound technology, resulting in improved toughness and tensile properties yielding higher performance compostable bags," said Ruiz.
This new line of BioTuf compounds using Mirel bioplastic can be easily processed on conventional industry equipment, producing readily compostable films with excellent puncture and tear resistance.
"The process of turning organic trash into compost will become a significant trend in how the U.S. manages its nearly 230 million tons of Municipal Solid Waste," said Ruiz. "A key element in managing this process is providing trash bags that meet ASTM standards for compostability, representing a multi-million dollar opportunity for our Mirel-based BioTuf compostable bags in the future."
About Metabolix
Founded in 1992, Metabolix, Inc. is an innovation driven bioscience company focused on providing sustainable solutions for the world's needs for plastics, chemicals and energy. The Company is taking a systems approach, from gene to end product, integrating sophisticated biotechnology with advanced industrial practice. Metabolix is now developing and commercializing Mirel bioplastics, a sustainable and biodegradable alternative to petroleum-based plastics. Mirel is suitable for injection molding, extrusion coating, cast film and sheet, blown film and thermoforming. Metabolix is also developing a proprietary platform technology for co-producing plastics, chemicals and energy, from crops such as switchgrass, oilseeds and sugarcane.
Metabolix and Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) are commercializing Mirel through a joint venture called Telles. The first commercial scale Mirel production plant is being constructed adjacent to ADM's wet corn mill in Clinton, Iowa. The plant is designed to produce up to 110 million pounds of Mirel annually. Mirel will reduce reliance on petroleum and decrease environmental impacts relative to conventional petroleum-based plastics.
For more information, please visit www.metabolix.com. (MBLX-G)
About Heritage Plastics and Heritage Bag Company
Heritage Plastics is a producer of a unique class of compounded plastic materials designed to improve the performance and productivity of many plastics applications. Heritage Plastics is known globally for products that boost the performance of extrusion, extrusion coating, blow molding, thermoforming, and injection molding processes and products. For more information, please visit www.heritage-plastics.com
Heritage Bag Company is a national manufacturer of institutional trash bags and can liners. Heritage Bag is the largest manufacturer of compostable trash bags, can liners and kitchen compost bags in the United States. For more information, please visit www.heritage-bag.com
Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The forward-looking statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future performance. Investors are cautioned that statements in this press release which are not strictly historical statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding expected waste disposal trends, projected market size, future demand for Mirel, the capacity of the Mirel commercial manufacturing facility, commercial viability of Mirel, and management's strategy, plans and objectives for future operations, product development, and research and development, constitute forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated, including, without limitation, risks associated with: uncertainties related to potential future market demand, the Company's dependence on ADM for construction of the commercial manufacturing facility, ADM's ability to complete construction of that facility on time and on budget, the ability of Metabolix and ADM to successfully manufacture Mirel at commercial scale and in a timely and economic manner, the Company's ability to develop Mirel products, uncertainties regarding market acceptance of Metabolix products, dependence on Metabolix's customers for commercialization of Mirel products, the Company's ability to compete with petroleum-based plastics and with other biobased products, the success of Metabolix research and development programs, and other risks detailed in Metabolix's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007. Metabolix assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release or with respect to the announcements described herein.
SOURCE: Metabolix Inc.
ICR Media: Matt Lindberg, 203-682-8214 matthew.lindberg@icrinc.com or Brian Ruby, 203-682-8268 brian.ruby@icrinc.com or Investors: Kathleen Heaney, 203-803-3585 kheaney@icrinc.com
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