Let's green up
Finally greener discs
kdg mediatech, best known as one of the first optical media manufacturing plants in Europe, develops an optical media produced out of renewable ressources. The EU-cofinanced project started in November 2010.
The main goal of this project is to have an European Green Product with an associated trademark available as the first successful green optical data storage product under market conditions in a 24 month time frame. The current petroleum based industry standard for optical media polycarbonate will be replaced by the environmentally compatible alternative polylactide acid (PLA). This is a biodegradable polymer produced out of EU overproduction sugar beets. As kdg mediatech has already produced a Compact Disc made out of PLA which fulfils all the optical and electrical product specification, the current available PLA material lacks to fulfil the specification for heat stability. The project partner German Bioplastics GmbH has a pilot plant under development which can produce a much more heat resistant PLA polymer using a new technology. With this new PLA material available a ready to market optical disc will be developed as a first part of the work program. The second part of the work program will deal with the market introduction of the PLA optical disc. The project also includes a Life cycle assessment study and a biodegradable certification of the product.
For further informations please contact:
Dr. Dirk Fuhrmann
kdg mediatech AG, Austria
dfuhrmann@kdg-mt.com
Tel: +43 5634 500 372
Link: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eco-innovation/
