The Bioplastics Revolution Challenge

An advantage of bioplastics is their independence from fossil fuel as a raw material, which is a finite and globally unevenly distributed resource. It is also linked to petroleum politics and has a negative environmental impact.

Life-cycle analysis studies show that some bioplastics can be made with a lower Carbon footprint than their fossil counterparts, however, other bioplastics’ processes are less efficient and result in a higher carbon footprint than fossil plastics.

Although bioplastics are advantageous because they reduce non-renewable consumption and GHG emissions, they also negatively affect the environment through their land and water consumption. This is in addition to their use of pesticides and fertilisers, eutrophication and acidification.

Ashish Chitalia, head of polyolefins at the energy and petrochemicals consultancy and research organisation, Wood MacKenzie, explains: “The challenges faced by bioplastics, in the first place are the economic considerations. Actually, it’s pretty expensive to produce bioplastics when compared to petrochemicals. Yet another thing is that it competes directly with agricultural resources for food, where you are competing for land-use with sugar, corn and wheat,” he said.

“ it’s pretty expensive to produce bioplastics when compared to petrochemicals ”

Keeping fresh for longer

Both the NTU & Harvard scientists have developed biodegradable food packaging that can keep strawberries fresh for longer. This new material can also help to reduce food and plastic waste. The biodegradable food packaging’s main ingredient is zein. This is produced from corn gluten meal, which is a waste by-product from corn starch or oils that are used in ethanol production. Corn Ethanol is the type of biofuel that is commonly used with gasoline to power engines in the United States.

The food packaging is made by electrospinning, which is an industrial method using electrical force to produce zein fibres. These are natural antimicrobial compounds combined with cellulose, a natural polymer starch that makes up plant cell walls, and acetic acid. The result is a fully waterproof and antimicrobial material.

Plant based packaging unveiled

In line with its goal to transition to 100% recycled and plant-based PET bottles by 2030, the Suntory Group recently unveiled a prototype PET bottle made from 100% plantbased materials.

The prototype bottle was developed in collaboration with US-based Anellotech for Suntory’s Orangina and Tennensui soft drinks brands in the European and Japanese markets. Given Suntory’s claims that its plant-based bottle overcomes several issues associated with bioplastics, it represents a step forward for the beverages industry towards the holy grail of biodegradable packaging, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Bobby Verghese, Consumer Analyst at GlobalData, commented “Compostable/biodegradable plastics are presently a lower priority than recyclable packaging for Japanese consumers, as validated by GlobalData’s Q3 2021 consumer survey. Only 30% of Japanese respondents in the survey consider compostable/biodegradable plastics an important factor in a product, when compared with 63% of respondents who prioritise easy-to-recycle products. Verghese added, “This is partly because consumers are disillusioned by earlier plant-based packaging innovations such as Coca-Cola’s PlantBottle, which failed to take off after the initial hype due to functional and cost challenges. Also, a large section of consumers remain unsure how the biodegradable bottles will safeguard its contents.”

While bioplastics are touted as the penultimate solution for the plastic waste problem, most products have failed to match the performance of conventional oil-based plastics. Additionally, the cost of raw materials and overhauling existing manufacturing lines to accommodate bioplastics remain quite prohibitive. Moreover, bioplastics degrade only under specific ambient conditions, thereby posing an environmental threat.

Suntory claims its bioplastic material is made from two compounds, namely PTA and MEG, which are made from non-food biomass and non-food-grade feedstock, which minimises its impact on the food chain. The plant-based bottle is claimed to generate far lower carbon emissions than petroleum-derived plastic bottles.

It would appear that the plant-based bottle is evolving fast to become a major player in the biodegradable packaging sector. Watch this space for further developments.

The food industry is one of the sectors that benefited the most from the developments in plastics in the past century. Just as refrigeration revolutionised preservation of food for consumers, plastic packaging reshaped product possibilities and food distribution. Plastics provided an effective, massproducible means of extending the shelf life of products by protecting them from oxidation, microbial growth and some damage during transportation.

Coffee pods or capsules are sealed small containers filled with ground coffee. Although convenient, the environmental impact of lots of individual pods can quickly add up. Whilst most coffee pods were originally plastic or aluminium (not always easy to recycle), and utilise 3g of packaging per 6g of product, there are now a range of eco-friendly pods that are compostable, biodegradable and easier to recycle.

Cologne-based company BIO-FED, a branch of AKRO-PLASTIC, is an expert in the developing and producing biodegradable and/or biobased compounds under the brand name M·VERA®. This grade range consists of biodegradable compounds, most of them are also partially to fully biobased. M∙VERA® GP1045. was specially designed for injection moulding applications, consists of renewable raw materials and is home compostable. It is particularly suitable for applications requiring medium stiffness (tensile modulus 2,000 MPa) and can therefore be used for a wide range of household articles, packaging, coffee capsules, etc. This compound consists of almost 100 % renewable raw materials and, according to the company, is ideally suited for the production of rigid objects.

“We are pleased to be able to offer our customers an ever broader portfolio, with products they can easily integrate into their existing production processes. This makes it possible to switch to more environmentally-friendly materials,” says Stanislaw Haftka, Sales Director at BIO-FED.

Biome Technologies has announced that Biome Bioplastics, its bioplastics division has received an order worth US$550,000 from an existing major client operating in the United States packaging market. This order, which provides support for the division’s financial expectations for this year, is the largest single order to date for Biome’s heat-stable and compostable bioplastic for coffee pod applications, which was first commercialised in 2019. Deliveries under this order are due to be completed in the next two months.

This new material takes less than three months to compost in industrial composting environments and is designed to provide the structure for coffee pods, whilst preventing deformation when exposed to hot water brewing conditions. It was developed in the division’s R&D facility in Southampton, UK and is now being manufactured in the United States on a regular production basis in commercial quantities.

Paul Mines, CEO of Biome Technologies plc, commented “We believe that there is significant commercial potential for this coffee pod material, as brands in the hot beverage sector move to bio-based and compostable solutions to transform the sustainability of their products.”

Waste is a serious issue for the coffee pod industry, which is now searching for alternatives to combat this waste inefficiency as well as increase resource efficiency and effectiveness. Results from a study by revealed that the recyclable aluminium format of a coffee pod has the largest probable negative environmental effects.

The plastic and aluminium composite structure of a generic pod is often unable to be recycled in most community and industrial recycling plants due to the challenges posed by the pod being a mixture of different plastics. This non-recyclable packaging property may act as a hindrance to the growth of the global market for coffee Pods.

Although there are recyclable pods available in the market, they have been scrutinised and criticised for the low rate at which they are being recycled. Tones of coffee pods are still ending up in landfills or being incinerated on a global scale. Even considering this criticism, there is still a drive towards increasing profitability in the global marketing and sales of coffee pods rather than a focus on responsible production.

The current use by the coffee production chain of environmentally detrimental packaging has raised questions amongst consumers regarding the ethics of the supply chain as well as the production of coffee. This offers the industry an opportunity to move towards a more circular business model that reduces the environmental impact of the pod-style coffee system by producing and using biobased polymers that are biodegradable and hence compostable.

“ We are pleased to be able to offer our customers an ever broader portfolio ”

“ Waste is a serious issue for the coffee pod industry ”