Global Plastic Leak Project kicks off to tackle plastic and microplastic leakage Key stakeholders from the private and public sector have become members of the Plastic Leak Project (PLP), which intends to develop robust metrics to locate, measure and map plastic and microplastic pollution across the value chain and define effective actions to fix the problem [...]
Nova-Institut, an independent research institute based in Germany, has carried out a sustainability study of bio-based raw materials for the chemical industry. The assessment analyses the strengths and weaknesses of sugar plants, starch plants, virgin wood as well as waste and residues for the production of bio-based chemicals. According to the results, first-generation fermentable sugar [...]
Nestlé and Danimer Scientific partner to develop a biodegradable water bottle: Nestlé and Danimer Scientific, a leading developer and manufacturer of biodegradable plastic products, have announced a global partnership to develop biodegradable bottles. Nestlé and Danimer Scientific will collaborate to design and manufacture bio-based resins for Nestlé’s water business using Danimer Scientific’s PHA polymer Nodax™. In [...]
The recent study “Land use mediated GHG emissions and spillovers from increased consumption of bioplastics” published by the University of Bonn calls into question the contribution of bio-based plastics to climate change mitigation. Although the study describes that fossil-based plastics are responsible for 15 percent of the global CO2 emissions*, it fails to acknowledge [...]
Contribution article by Ville Uusitalo, Assistant Professor at the LUT-University (School of Energy Systems, Sustainable Science) and Annamari Enström, Senior Researcher, LCA at Neste Corporation. Global warming impacts of different products and processes from life cycle assessment (LCA) perspective is widely performed with standardized methods. Global warming impact assessments in LCA are, typically, carried [...]
Berlin, 17 October 2018. The European Commission recently delivered its review of the 2012 European Bioeconomy Strategy. The strategy is a step forward towards ensuring that fossil resources are replaced by sustainable natural alternatives for the production of bio-based products such as bio-based plastics and energy. "Only by driving the transition in relevant markets, [...]
Berlin, 16 August 2018 - Researchers at ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) succeeded in an interdisciplinary study to demonstrate that soil microorganisms metabolically utilised the carbon in the PBAT polymer both for energy production and also to build up microbial biomass. The researchers used the biodegradable [...]
PHA from sewage sludge enters demonstration phase: The Phario project produces PHA at the biological sewage treatment plant in Bath, the Netherlands, which is run by the Brabantse Delta water board. The processes required for purifying sewage water breeds bacteria that can produce 0.47 grams of PHA per gram of organic matter in the [...]
The new German packaging law (Verpackungsgesetz, effective from January 2019, we reported earlier this year) includes provisions under which the participation fees for packaging shall be adapted in order to incentivise the use of recycled and renewable materials. The consequential increase in bio-based plastic packaging and the expected rise of new types of materials [...]
With growing market volumes of innovative bio-based and biodegradable plastics such as PLA (polylactic acid), the recycling of these materials is becoming a more viable option. We therefore spoke to Steve Dejonghe from Looplife Polymers Site, a recycler in Belgium that already successfully recycles PLA for a number of industrial projects, about the recyclability [...]
