US Patent 5,736,586, naming Catia Bastioli as inventor, was granted for biodegradable foamed plastic materials developed at Novamont.
On April 7, 1998, the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted Patent No. 5,736,586, titled "Biodegradable foamed plastic materials," naming Catia Bastioli among its inventors and Novamont S.p.A. as assignee. This patent covered methods for producing foamed plastic materials from biodegradable, starch-based formulations, offering an alternative to conventional expanded polystyrene and other petroleum-based foams.
The grant validated years of research conducted by Bastioli and her collaborators into converting agricultural feedstocks into commercially viable, compostable materials. Foamed plastics were (and remain) widely used in packaging, insulation, and food service applications, and developing a biodegradable alternative addressed a significant environmental challenge: the persistence of foam plastic waste in landfills and oceans.
This patent became one of the foundational intellectual property assets supporting Novamont's Mater-Bi product family, and it was later cited among the body of work recognized when Bastioli received the European Inventor of the Year award in 2007. The achievement reflects the technical rigor and persistence required to translate laboratory-scale bioplastic research into patentable, industrially relevant technology during a period when sustainable materials science was still a nascent field.