In the bag.

• Author: Pethe, Gary
• Position: Rollpak Corp. - Company profile

IN THE BAG

Rollpak Corporation looks to "bag" a new market in biodegradable plastic.

Most manufacturers brag about how long their products will last. But Dale and Gary Weaver brag about how quickly their newest product disintegrates.

The two entrepreneurial brothers are president and executive vice president, respectively, of Goshen-based Rollpak Corporation, a plastic-bag manufacturing company. The firm's primary business is manufacturing standard polyethylene trash bags, both under its own name and for various other private-label marketers.

Rollpak's newest product is a degradable plastic trash bag that can decompose in as few as 18 months. If that sounds slow, consider that regular plastic trash bags take up to 400 years to return to nature.

Rollpak has been selling the degradable bags to industrial and institutional users since last summer. At present, the product accounts for only about 5 percent of annual sales, but there is growing market potential.

"Public awareness is high right now--and there's a growing interest in a degradable product," says Gary Weaver, who heads up sales for Rollpak. That awareness has prompted Rollpak to develop degradable trash bags for the consumer market. The product will begin appearing on supermarket shelves in late fall or early winter of this year.

Weaver isn't bashful about noting that acceptance of the product has been sluggish in some quarters. "For our industrial and institutional customers, degradable plastic bags aren't yet perceived as viable. It's a little more expensive, so those customers aren't quite ready to accept it yet on a large scale," says Weaver. Because of tight budgets, this market will be slow to respond unless proded by governmental regulation or consumer activism, he explains.

Though acceptance in the industrial and institutional sector has been slow, Weaver's enthusiasm for the degradable product remains strong. "It has lots of things going for it," he notes. "Degradability is a step toward being environmentally friendly. Since cornstarch is a primary ingredient in the process, that's a plus for corn growers."

Industry analysts predict that development of biodegradable plastics in the United States could eventually lead to an additional corn market of up to 300 million bushels a year. "That would be a big boost for us here in the Midwest, where corn is a major cash crop," Weaver points out.

Degradable plastic will also help solve the country's growing wastedisposal crisis...