D&L Industries Inc. (D&L) could go into the production of biodegradable plastics in light of the increasing need for sustainability, company President and Chief Executive Officer Alvin Lao said on Monday.

“In terms of an expansion, it is something that we are indeed studying but as of now, there is nothing definite yet ...,” Lao told reporters after the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting.

D&L is currently focused on the completion of its Batangas plant, which is a project that does not involve plastics, he added.

While the company does make biodegradable plastics, Lao said mass production would be costly.

“We do have biodegradable plastics, and they are actually doing quite well,” he said, “but it is still more expensive than the regular plastics [that we manufacture].”

Clients, he added, currently prefer recyclable packaging, of which order volumes are “already big.”

“In our case, we cannot make enough of the product, so unless our customers can be assured that there is enough supply to meet their requirements, they will not just switch to alternative packaging,” Lao sad.

While plastics is seen as a sunset industry, Lao said there was still no better alternative that is “cheap, flexible, sterile and malleable.”

The Batangas expansion, D&L said, will be instrumental to the company’s future growth as it “will enable the company to develop more high value-added coconut-based products and penetrate new international markets.”

“In the new normal, the company has successfully made significant inroads in supplying various raw materials and even finished products to several relevant fast-moving consumer goods categories,” it added.

The facility will mainly cater to D&L’s growing export businesses in the food and oleochemicals segments, and add capability to manufacture downstream packaging.

D&L shares went up 16 centavos to P7.15 on Monday.