bioplastics MAGAZINE Issue 02/2021

Highly selective catalysts enable scale and cost advantages for new bioplastics

Published in bioplastics MAGAZINE

Application News

From Bioeconomy to Carbon Management

“As a product packaging and tableware producer for the foodservice and travel market, our product innovation strategy is strongly built around moving towards a circular economy. We follow the principles of the Ellen Mac Arthur Foundation to achieve our 2025 targets to have all our products ready to fit into the circular economy and we have undersigned the Global Commitment of the UN Global Tourism Plastic Pact to increase the sustainability of our plastic usage.

More than a Plastics & Rubber Trade Fair ­— Concurrent Events Unveiled

Every year, an estimated 25 million tonnes of cotton textiles are discarded around the world. In total, 100 million tonnes of textiles are thrown out. In Sweden barely 5 % is recycled, most of the material goes straight into an incinerator and becomes district heating. In other places, it is even worse, as clothes usually end up in landfills.

Innovation can come from various places and sometimes it’s as simple as the question “This should be a thing, why is it not a thing?” This is exactly what Rachel Domb, a second-year psychology student at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts (USA) asked.

Material News

SP Group (Singapore) and Nurel Biopolymers (Zaragoza, Spain) present a new multilayer film structure, with high oxygen barrier, sealing, and transparency properties whose main advantage is the compostability of the container.

News

Eastman Chemical Company Board Chair and CEO Mark Costa and Tennessee Governor Bill Lee recently announced the company's plans to build one of the world's largest plastic-to-plastic molecular recycling facilities at its site in Kingsport, Tenn., USA. Through methanolysis, this world-scale facility will convert polyester waste that often ends up in landfills and waterways into durable products, creating an optimized circular economy. Over the next two years, the company will invest approximately USD 250 million in the facility, which will support Eastman's commitment to addressing the global waste crisis and to mitigating challenges created by climate change, while also creating value for its stakeholders.

Evonik (Essen/Marl, Germany) is adding a sustainable, high-performance moulding compound to its range of transparent polyamides. Trogamid® myCX eCO is produced to 40 % from a biobased monomer and entirely with renewable energy. This results in a 50 % reduction in the CO2 footprint compared to the qualitatively equivalent premium product produced on a petrochemical basis using conventional energy sources.

Not just sustainable but better performance

How to disrupt FMCG-Packaging with wood and biopolymers

For biobased products using fast and efficient high throughput experimentation

The second bio!TOY conference – Sept. 7–8, 2021, in Nuremberg, Germany

delivers first tonnes of high purity lignin and wood sugars

Global warming and plastic pollution are among the biggest challenges of our time. One strategy that tries to tackle both problems simultaneously falls into the areas of chemical recycling and renewable carbon – using waste streams as a renewable feedstock for plastic production. On the one hand, this idea would cut down on the reliance on fossil resources, which would reduce global warming by turning from a linear to a circular economy. And on the other hand, it would fight plastic pollution as waste would become a valuable resource, which puts a monetary incentive on proper waste management.

T his article is based on a comprehensive new report published by nova-Institute, titled “Bio-based Naphtha and Mass Balance Approach” [1]

The added value of compostability

As the planet’s burden of rubber and plastic rises unabated, scientists look to the promise of closed-loop recycling to reduce trash. Researchers in the Chirik Lab, Department of Chemistry at Princeton University (New Jersey, USA), have discovered a potentially game-changing new molecule, with vast implications for fulfilling that promise through depolymerization. It was found in a material called polybutadiene, which has been known for over 100 years and is used to make rubber and plastic products. Butadiene, its monomer, is an abundant organic compound and a major byproduct of fossil fuel development.

Sustainable compounds incorporating agro-industrial scraps

Swedish innovation company RenCom AB announced the start of production of Renol®, an innovative thermoplastic biomaterial. Following comprehensive studies in Coperion’s extrusion test lab in Stuttgart, Germany, RenCom and Coperion have developed the innovative extrusion process of Renol, a lignin-based material. Using Coperion’s ZSK twin screw extruder technology lignin can be transformed into durable, reusable biomaterial.