January 24, 2011 (Tarboro, NC) – Foam fabricators and packaging engineers seeking a more environmentally-friendly foam solution can now consider NomaGreen™, the first biodegradable polyethylene foam on the market. This February, NomaGreen will be available from Nomaco Engineered Foam Solutions in low density PE plank sheets. Special custom profile orders may also be quoted.

“The ability to reuse and recycle PE foam is key to our customers and to us, but we wanted to go a step further by providing a biodegradable option in our products,” said Kurt Harmon, president of Nomaco EFS. “At the same time, we made sure that NomaGreen maintains all of the standard characteristics of PE foam, in addition to being biodegradable.”

Unlike starch-based or bio-based products, NomaGreen only begins the biodegradation process when placed in a microbe-rich environment, such as a landfill.

“Since NomaGreen requires a microbe-rich environment to biodegrade, this foam has an indefinite shelf-life and customers don’t have to worry about exposing it to moisture, heat, light or mechanical stress,” explained Harmon.

NomaGreen’s proprietary formulation causes the foam to attract microbes when placed in an environment such as a landfill. The microbes then digest the foam, and over time, convert it into biomass, CO2 and biogas.

Independent, third-party laboratory testing of NomaGreen using ASTM D5511, the standard test method for determining anaerobic biodegradation of plastic materials under high-solids anaerobic-digestion conditions, showed that the NomaGreen product achieved greater than 40% biodegradation in 120 days.

NomaGreen is available as part of Nomaco EFS’s extruded packaging plank line of products and may be quoted for custom orders. For more information on NomaGreen or Nomaco EFS, visit www.nomacoefs.com or call 877-291-1157.

Nomaco Engineered Foam Solutions offers a standard line of commercial products developed for the packaging, fitness/rehabilitation, playground, oil containment and other niche markets. In addition, the company specializes in custom-engineered foam products for a variety of original equipment manufacturers.

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