“Botanical” bioPE bricks from Lego
Discov ering bioplast ics
Lego, European Bioplastics
Bioplastics in the limelight A journey through the curious world of bioplastics. They may cause a revolution over the next few years, in fact they probably already have, just quietly BY ST E FA NO BE R TA CCH I
W
hat happens when you combine sustainability, technology, and science? Often new opportunities arise, leading to developing solutions for current and future problems. But what happens when all that is combined with legislation, marketing, consumers, and the Internet? A whole lot of confusion, and often the risk of spreading disinformation to the general public who can easily fall prey to misinterpretation or fall into intentional traps when they try to understand what nobody is explaining. The best way, then, to tackle this issue (whatever this issue might be) is to be properly informed. Even more so when it is regarding scientific issues. And bioplastics represent one such case. The introduction of laws in Italy to govern biodegradable bags for fruit and vegetable produce (Italian Law no. 123/2017, introduced on January 1, 2018) triggered an apocalypse on the Internet in the early days of that year. Political accusations, economic conjecturing, people at super-
18
markets who put the price label on every single tomato to avoid buying bags: anything, basically. And this disconnected reaction, though exaggerated, is also attributable to those who, from lawmakers to large-scale retail trade, did not hold the consumer’s hand through the transition, even though they had known about it since August 2017, resulting in an information gap full of fragmented or incorrect information. The upside is that everyone, all of a sudden, begun to be interested in the issue of biodegradable bags and bioplastics, despite, at least at first, there being one down side. Then, as is often the case for the discussion that pops up on the Internet, the talk went away in just a few weeks. The message remains, however, that consumers are not being informed, and it is very important for this not to happen, given that this technology then ends up in the hands of the consumers themselves. Indeed, if consumers don’t know that the item they are holding goes in organic waste, it is unlikely they will throw it in the right waste
bin, making all those efforts of producing a biodegradable material useless. The purpose of this article is, therefore, to lead the reader on a journey through the curious world of bioplastics, which might soon cause a revolution, one that has probably already begun in almost complete silence.
Plastics vs. bioplastics Definitions The European Bioplastics association defines bioplastic as a plastic material that is biobased, biodegradable, or that features both properties. This definition is the one lawmakers usually consider when drawing up various regulations, but it is unlikely to resolve many perplexities. Especially because it is taken for granted that the definition “biomass” and “biodegradable” leave room for interpretation. To simplify, biomass is intended to mean a renewable resource, in the majority of cases of vegetable origin, that can quickly regenerate, thanks to the free energy MACPLAS I NTER NATI ONAL | MAY 2022
