MATERIALS | BIOPLASTICS
Right: Biofast has devised a way to speed up biodegrada- tion tests of compostable plastics
“This is an important step towards a circular economy model in which bioplastics can be rapidly broken down and valorised,” said the partners. “The protocol developed could be adopted on a large scale to promote more sustainable and efficient practices in the treatment of compostable bioplastic waste.”
Bioplastic packaging A pan-European project aims to develop new types of bioplastics for food packaging. Greco, which runs for four years, has 22 partners including TotalEnergies Corbion and Aimplas. It aims to develop food packaging based on novel PLA copolymers, functional coatings, additives and catalysts. “Greco aligns with the Packaging and Packaging
Waste Regulation (PPWR) by developing bio- based, biodegradable, and recyclable PLA copoly- mers for food packaging,” said Dimitrios Bikiaris of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, who is the project coordinator. The project aims to use modelling tools – and an
iterative approach – to develop PLA copolymers with better biodegradability, performance, produc- tion rates, yield and quality. It will assess various end-of-life scenarios, including testing the recycla- bility of the bio-based polymers and materials using mechanical and chemical recycling (in both open- and closed-loop systems). The biodegrada- bility of the developed materials will be tested in marine, water, and soil environments. The materials will also be tested for industrial composting conditions and home composting. Aimplas of Spain will use reactive extrusion (Rex)
to develop tailor-made PLA-based copolymers for food packaging. “Developing PLA copolymers by reactive
extrusion – and producing additives by mechano- chemistry – is groundbreaking,” said Belen Monje Martinez, a researcher at Aimplas. “This will help us achieve more sustainable, bio-based, recyclable and biodegradable PLA compounds and coatings.” Greco has received €7.6 million funding from
the European Union’s Horizon Europe research programme.
Bioplastics recycling Another project will attempt to boost the recycling of bioplastics. ReBioCycle, which began last year, will establish
separate ‘hubs’ for mechanical, chemical, enzymat- ic and microbial recycling. These will be in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and Ireland. The project aims to demonstrate the impact of obtaining the
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IMAGE: AIMPLAS
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