BIOPLASTICS
Compostable polymers biodegrade in real conditions – study / ‘Strong signal for policy makers‘
Chaire CoPack (www.chairecopack.fr), an alliance set up by AgroParisTech (Nancy, France; www.agroparistech.fr) along with the French University of Montpellier, has conducted a scientific study that validates the biodegradation of certified compostable food contact packaging in industrial composting facilities, according to the preliminary report.
 Before and after industrial composting: the results of the Mineral Project study (Photo: Chaire CoPack) |
Titled Mineral Project – Testing and Validating Organic Recovery Methods for Food Packaging, the study’s findings were released by TotalEnergies Corbion (Gorinchem, the Netherlands; www.totalenergies-corbion.com), one of the companies participating in the experiment. It provided some commercial compostable materials made of flexible and rigid plastics such as bags, films, trays, and coffee pods.
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The other participating companies include BASF (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com), Carbiolice (Clermont-Ferrand, France; www.carbiolice.com), Novamont (Novara, Italy; www.novamont.com), and Green Business and Consulting Company (Cournon D’Auvergne, France; www.gbcc.bio). All are members of the Association Française des Compostables Biosourcés (AFCB, Issy les Moulineaux; www.afcb.fr).
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The results of the study send a strong signal to governments across Europe to grant certified compostable plastics access to biowaste collection and composting infrastructure, TotalEnergies Corbion said.
The research, carried out over a four-month period from October 2022, took place with real industrial composting conditions without forced aeration. It used the industrial composting platform of the Syndicat de Centre Héraut (Aspiran, France; www.syndicat-centre-herault.org).
The composting test used 20 t of food- and bio-waste collected from households, along with 323 kg of assorted certified compostable packaging.
The study examined commercially available food packaging in the European market made of different polymers certified either for industrial composting (EN 13432) or home composting (NF T51-800).
These products were made from biodegradable and compostable plastics such as PLA, PBAT, and complexed starch sourced from AFCB members.
Related: TotalEnergies Corbion to develop biobased BOPLA solutions with Chinese films specialist
03.07.2023 Plasteurope.com [253101-0]
Published on 03.07.2023