CORDIS

The NEWPACK – Development of New Competitive and Sustainable Bio-Based Plastics – project was launched on June 2018 with consortium of 13 partners consisting of academic research organizations and small and large industries coming from Finland, Spain, Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom, Romania, Switzerland and Belgium. University of Oulu, Finland, is the project coordinator.

The objective of the NEWPACK project is to produce at least two new bioplastics based on PHB-PLA blends with improved sustainability performance for food packaging applications. PHB-PLA blends will be improved by adding natural extracts with antioxidant and antibacterial properties and by introducing nanosize ingredients based on chitin and cellulose to enhance mechanical properties. The production and performance of these new bioplastic products will be validated at relevant industrial environment.

The raw material for these new bioplastics is agro-food waste such as potato peels. As bioplastics are defined as polymers having bio-based raw material and/or being biodegradable, the aim of the NEWPACK project is to solve issues addressed to petrochemical-based polymers; the adequacy and availability of raw material, carbon dioxide emissions, waste management and microplastic pollution.

While developing these new bioplastic based food packaging application, the NEWPACK project will carefully take into account the regulations and legislation, as well as the end-user preferences and consumer surveys. Special care will be taken on not to compromise actual food production at any stage while gaining raw material for the bioplastics. Thus a new circular economy value chain will be generated from the agro-food waste.

So far, the NEWPACK project has accomplished a market analysis, survey of availability of feedstock in Europe, reports on intermediate and final product technical requirements, up-scaled production of PHB, cellulose nanowhiskers and PHB-PLA blends and potential antioxidant natural extracts have been identified. Also, a preliminary Life Cycle Assessment have been performed.

The market analysis focused on the market demand and volume of materials in food packaging and their advantages and disadvantages. The rivalry and attractiveness of the food packaging plastic industry and the collaboration within the actors in food packaging supply chains were further characterized.

Based on the market analysis, the global bioplastic production is predicted to rise from 2.05 million tonnes to 2.44 million tonnes by 2022. The report identified both internal and external drivers and limitations for the growth of the bioplastic industry in different packaging segments. Multiple external drivers are stimulating the breakthrough of bioplastics, whereas the limitations of using bioplastics in food packaging are primarily internal to the market, including existing collaborations and networks in the food packaging industry, the functionality and performance challenges of bioplastics, and a high price of producing biomass materials.

From the food production perspective, the external regulations and incentives, including market pressure from the end-consumers towards sustainability, seem critical in the transitioning towards bioplastics. Similarly regarding retailers, it is vital to examine the possible changes required to in-store infrastructure and logistics, for example. To summarize, in the consumer-level, although there is an increasing responsibility awareness and demand by consumers for sustainable products and brands, greater education of the market is needed.

As for the feedstock availability survey, the report showed that most bioplastics are derived from carbohydrate-rich plants, for example, sugar beet, potato, and wheat, of which availability fluctuate significantly by the material type in Europe. The production of these 1st generation feedstock is significant and stabilized, but they are primarily utilized for food and feed production. With an increasing global population, the availability of this feedstock might be reduced in the future. This urges the development of innovative methods and technologies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of transformation of raw materials into bioplastics, chemicals, and other materials with minimum energy and other inputs to further increase the yields. Responsible and sustainable sourcing in the production of bioplastics is further required. Specifically, bioplastic feedstock should be broadened more strongly into plant residues and ligno-cellulosic feedstock. This would create smaller demands for land and thus increase the availability of feedstock for producing bioplastics. Nevertheless, there is no data on the availability of food residues and therefore the question remains whether there is enough waste or not for the bioplastic production to protect the sufficient supply of increasing use of bioplastics.

Responsible and sustainable sourcing remains to be the critical in securing the availability of feedstock and the production of bioplastics. Regarding the supply of later generation feedstock, it is also important that new actors enter the market with feasible business models to develop innovative technologies that permit transforming these feedstock into biomaterials and to gather and distribute the food waste. This together with the level playing field for every bio-industry assuring the highest value creation and the most beneficial environmental benefits can enable and facilitate the growth of the bioplastic industry.

The intermediate and final product technical requirements were set and four food matrices were chosen for further development of the bioplastic based food packagi

The production of PHB, nanosized whiskers of cellulose and chitin from agro-food waste already exist at the laboratory scale and the first demonstrations to take the technology to pilot scale have been taken.

By the end of the project, at least two new bio-plastics based PHB-PLA blends with natural extracts and nanoadditives to provide antioxidant, antibacterial and improved mechanical properties will be developed for food packaging applications. As agro-food waste will be used as raw material, a new circular economy value chain with new jobs will be generated.