This year has already seen quite an impressive number of studies, reports, and additional publications related to bioplastics that were published by the European Commission (EC). Most of them contribute to the development of a framework for bioplastics included in the EC’s Circular Economy Action Plan. For the bioplastics industry, a clear framework is [...]
Read in the following a guest commentary by Francesco Degli Innocenti and Tony Breton from the European Bioplastics Working Group Standardisation. The authors’ opinion on Spaghetti and Currywurst does not represent EUBP’s official position on Mediterranean and German dishes. Tony Breton, EUBP Working Group Standardisation Francesco Degli Innocenti, EUBP Working Group [...]
Berlin, 29 October 2020 - Products made from bio-based plastics must undergo the same testing procedures as conventional plastic products to access the market of the European Union (EU). Thereby a health risk for consumers is excluded. Plastics intended to be certified as biodegradable or compostable must undergo additional tests. "Products made of bioplastics [...]
The European Environment Agency (EEA) recently published its new report “Biodegradable and compostable plastics – challenges and opportunities”. The report highlights many positive aspects of biodegradable and compostable plastics. Unfortunately, its interpretation in several media outlets focused exclusively on the few critical assumptions the report makes regarding consumer perception. This resulted in a distorted [...]
The Witzenhausen Institute and the University of Bayreuth conducted a very interesting study, analysing the compost of several German industrial composting facilities for possible plastic content deriving from compostable biowaste bags. The field study concluded that compostable bags, certified according to the European standard EN 13432, do not pose any challenges to the quality of the compost. During the research project, the results of which were published in the May edition (05/2020, in German) of the German trade magazine „Müll und Abfall“, the scientists analysed a total of 30 samples and [...]
In the course of implementing the European Strategy for Plastics, so far, the European Commission (EC) initiated a remarkable number of research studies. The recently published study on the ‘Relevance of biodegradable and compostable plastic products in a circular economy’ ranks amongst the most important ones for the bioplastics industry. It aims at contributing [...]
A recent study by Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Netherlands, analysed the fate of compostable packaging products in a Dutch full-scale industrial organic waste treatment facility. The independent research results confirm what producers of biodegradable and compostable plastics have been saying for a long time. The different tested EN13432 certified products broke down within [...]
WRAP, a not for profit organisation, which leads the UK Plastics Pact, has recently published a new guidance to help businesses make informed choices when considering the use of compostable packaging. The document clarifies what compostable plastics packaging is, outlines current waste management practices and identifies key applications and opportunities within the existing infrastructure. [...]
Berlin, 20 February 2020 – A recent study by Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Netherlands, analysed the fate of compostable packaging products in a full- scale industrial organic waste treatment facility. The results show that the tested EN13432 certified products break down within a maximum of 22 days. The project was commissioned by the [...]
In many EU Member States the political process that led to the Single-use Plastics Directive has initiated dynamic debates around bioplastics. This is also the case in France, where the national parliament is currently discussing a draft law on anti-waste and circular economy. Amongst other possible instruments, the draft also includes restrictions against plastic bags.However, [...]
