Food packaging waste has reached around 45 million tonnes per year in Europe, with over one third going into household bins and ending up in landfill. The demand for biodegradable packaging, which is simple and cost effective to produce, has been met by the PlantPack Project. Its innovative spray coating based on starch and seaweed has created packaging which is naturally derived, biodegradable, and recyclable, thus providing an all-round disposal option.
Michael Morris, Project Manager of the PRA, said: “Existing packaging has a number of limitations, namely the petrochemical derived polymers which are often used as a base. These not only prevent recycling but are based on oil which is of course expensive. Other coating materials, such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), are causing health concerns whilst the European Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste is promoting change. It was therefore clear that a solution needed to not only be found but rapidly progressed towards commercialisation.
“The PRA’s role has been to overcome the technical barriers associated with formulating a novel sustainable coating based on seaweed extract and starch.
In addition to the scientific formulations and testing of the PlantPack coatings, PRA were also the project coordinator to ensure the needs of the SME participants were fully represented for the duration of the project.”
The PlantPack project is now in the final six months of its two year timescale and as such, is beginning to consider the commercialisation of the coating. After substantial research the coatings have been applied to both paper and paperboard substrates and preliminary evaluation studies are now determining their performance for selected end-user applications. The next stage will be to scale-up a number of the coatings to determine their commercial competiveness in comparison to current petroleum derived coatings and suitable disposal options.
The PlantPack consortium consists of seven partners originating from the United Kingdom, Turkey, Poland and Spain:
• PRA
• ITENE
• Mantrose UK Ltd
• Altin Gida
• Alexir Packaging Ltd
• Yanko SP. Z.o.o
• Seaweed Canarias
