Bioplastics and plastics recycling
We cannot imagine our daily life without plastics. Generally, the day starts and ends with a toothbrush, typically completely made of plastics. Plastics take over varying tasks, like packaging for the protection of food or medicine ensuring the products’ hygiene and durability. As plastics barely conduct heat, houses are isolated with corresponding insulating materials to avoid heat loss. Polymer components almost do not corrode, are light-weighted but durable and thus are resistant to many outside influences over a long period. Apparel made of synthetic fiber textiles or of synthetic fiber components can provide comfortable wearability properties as well as functionalities such as water repellency and/or breathability.
However, we should not oversee the disadvantages of polymers and their occurring hazards. Immediate advantageous properties, like outstanding durability, could be a tremendous disadvantage if it is disposed in nature. Then, polymers are only degraded extremely slowly in nature and will remain as waste for centuries to come. In addition, we can nowadays find nano plastic particles everywhere: added in toothpaste or detergents, to improve its cleaning impact, or in cosmetics to boost the covering power.
Biopolymers make the difference
Next to these environmental and health hazards, there remain other non-solved functionality deficiencies related to petro-chemical plastics. For instance, compound systems from different plastics are required to achieve varied barrier effects in packaging to protect food. These systems lead to a limited recyclability and lastly to a “downcycling”, as these materials, produced at great effort, cannot be separated at their end of life.
Therefore, it is important to substitute petro-chemical plastic products with environmentally friendly alternatives at large scale as soon as possible. These alternatives must ensure the positive application properties of plastic materials in daily use and must not lead to the mentioned, negative environmental impacts and health hazards. “Bioplastics” lend themselves as these alternatives due to their nearly similar characteristics, related material properties and manufacturing processes. On top of that, we can expect properties (e.g., barrier effects) of certain biopolymers that cannot be met by petro-chemical plastics. The most well-known, technically usable, bio-based polymers comprise polylactide (PLA), polybutyl-succinate (PBS), an polysaccharides like starch and polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA).
Networks
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BioPlastik
In the “BioPlastik” cooperation network, partners from industry and academia work together under the management of IBB Netzwerk GmbH. The…
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Plastics Recycling
With the newly established “Plastics Recycling” network, we would like to represent the entire value chain. Thus, among others, suppliers…
News
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Enzymes Instead of Cyanide: Researchers Develop Biocatalytic Process for Nitrile Production
25.06.2024NewsA research team from TU Graz and the Czech Academy of Sciences has used two enzymes to eliminate the need for highly toxic cyanide in the production of nitriles.
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The Finnish sustainability fund UB Forest Industry Green Growth Fund (UB FIGG) and the specialty chemicals group ALTANA are investing in the technology company NORDTREAT.
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440 participants discussed the defossilisation of the chemical and materials industry through biomass, CO2 and recycling. The audience voted for the “Renewable Material of the Year 2024”: Acetic acid…
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Stora Enso and Altris collaborate to develop and commercialise world’s most sustainable battery
05.06.2024NewsStora Enso has partnered with Altris, a Swedish developer of sodium-ion batteries. The two companies aim to further advance the development and commercialisation of a sustainable battery value chain…
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New polystyrene recycling process could be world’s first to be both economical and energy-efficient
29.05.2024NewsChemical method identified to tackle hard-to-recycle packaging material, cutting landfill waste
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Introduction of the new “OK renewable carbon” certificate: Award ceremony for the first products
29.05.2024NewsTÜV AUSTRIA, the Renewable Carbon Initiative (RCI) and the nova-Institute introduce the new certificate at the Renewable Materials Conference in Siegburg.
Events
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July, 14th — 19th 2024 | Lyon
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26. ‐ 28. Aug 2024
2nd International Summit on Non-Renewable and Renewable Energy
27.10.2023Events26. — 28.08.2024 | Valencia, Spain
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19. ‐ 21. Sep 2024
Euro-Global Conference on Biotechnology and Bioengineering (ECBB 2024)
24.11.2023Events19. — 21.09.2024 | Rome, Italy