bioplastics MAGAZINE Issue 01/2021

Published in bioplastics MAGAZINE

Yum China Holdings, Inc. the Shanghai based licensee of Yum! Brands in mainland China announced that it has launched a series of plastic reduction and environmentally friendly packaging initiatives across its brands in line with the latest regulations in China. As a result of these initiatives, Yum China expects a reduction of approximately 8,000 tonnes of non-degradable plastics annually starting from 2021. Brands include (among others) KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell.

Strong and flexible foam sheets of biomass plastic for a zero-carbon, circular economy

Application News

The automotive industry is increasingly working on aligning vehicle production with the principles of sustainability. The development of appropriate materials plays a decisive role in this process. Röchling Automotive, an automotive supplier based in Mannheim Germany, has already started a biopolymer project in 2010, but the market at the time had not been quite ready. Now, Röchling believes, it is. A good decade later interest in alternative materials, as well as recycled materials is rising.

Polymeric foams are widely used in applications such as cushioning, packaging, and insulation, due to their unique energy absorption behaviour and good thermal or acoustic insulation properties. They keep their bending stiffness, though a part of the material is exchanged by gas and so reduces the part’s mass at the same time. Currently, extruded PS (XPS) is one of the most important representatives of foams worldwide. In some countries, there have already been attempts to ban food packaging made of petroleum-based XPS foams. As a result, alternatives to foams made of PS are coming into focus. One possible alternative is polylactide (PLA). PLA is a biobased polyester that is biodegradable under certain conditions, approved for use in the food industry, available at competitive prices, and has mechanical properties similar to those of PS. However, PLA also has a number of disadvantages, which pose a particular challenge for foaming. In addition to its low melt strength and viscosity, its crystallization behaviour is also responsible for the fact that unmodified PLA is difficult to foam.

Lifoam Industries (Greenville, South Carolina, USA), a business segment and subsidiary of LifeMade Products, has been awarded multiple patents for making and molding an entirely new type of biobased bead foam. This innovation comes on the heels of introducing the Envirocooler™ EVG™ earlier last year, which is a treated expanded polystyrene (EPS) product. The new, biobased, proprietary technology performs similarly both thermally and mechanically to traditional EPS, but is composed entirely of renewable materials.

Achieving sustainability in product design can be challenging when not all biobased materials and sustainable plastic product development processes are created equal. Manufacturers should not have to sacrifice the quality of their products to create more sustainable offerings. When designing components with porous polymers, manufacturers can achieve high-quality material solutions using biobased, recycled, or biodegradable plastics, replacing porous components made from single-use plastics. However, it’s critical to understand the various technical considerations for porous polymers based on technology and functionality in order to explain how best to design with sustainability in mind.

Igniting new momentum during challenging times

The last year has been a difficult one with the coronavirus raging across the globe and governments scrambling to find solutions to stop its spread. Many of us are currently in one form of lockdown or another as the second, and in some countries even the third wave washes over us. However, 2021 is starting hopeful, vaccines are approved and being distributed, yet normalcy seems to be still out of reach as new mutations seem to be popping up left and right.

as catalysts for bioplastic production and deconstruction

Lingrove, the San Francisco, USA, based biocomposite manufacturer has set its eyes on the automotive market with their flagship material Ekoa® Surface. Originally developed as a lightweight alternative to rainforest wood for guitars, Ekoa has been adapted to many applications from fishing rods to arrows, but has recently been applied to interior applications in cooperation with some of the largest commercial interiors companies in the world. And while the commercial interiors market is still very central to Lingrove’s future plans with furniture applications due next year, the automotive sector also offers a range of near-term opportunities.

Every year, Netherland-based student company TU/ecomotive produces an electric car with a team of 21 BA students from the Eindhoven University of Technology, in the aim of showing the world that the hypothetical, sustainable car of the future, can be a reality today.

News

The United States generates a colossal seven million tonnes of sewage sludge annually, enough to fill 2,500 Olympic-sized swimming pools. While a portion of this waste is repurposed for manure and other land applications, a substantial amount is still disposed of in landfills. In a new study, Texas A&M University researchers have uncovered an efficient way to use leftover sludge to make biodegradable plastics.

Incubators are widely used in cold chain transportation, especially in today’s life of highly developed e-commerce and direct supply of fresh products. How to deliver fresh foods to consumers has become a special concern of many e-commerce platforms, fresh food producers, and logistic companies.

The global pandemic that defined 2020 triggered a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions due to lockdowns and stay-at-home measures which dramatically, albeit temporarily, decreased the use of automobiles. This is noteworthy because 2020 was also the year that the Paris Agreement went into effect. Adopted in 2015 in accord with the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCC), the Paris Agreement addresses the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions in response to global climate change.

Swiss cleantech company Bcomp from Fribourg develops sustainable lightweighting solutions for high-performance applications. Its award-winning approach to applying the latest composites knowledge to natural fibres has captured the interest of many industries, from skiing to luxury yachting and even space, through a collaboration with the European Space Agency. But it is Bcomp’s multiple projects with global automotive players that highlight the relevance of natural fibre composites for large scale mobility.