Berlin, 17 October 2018. The European Commission recently delivered its review of the 2012 European Bioeconomy Strategy. The strategy is a step forward towards ensuring that fossil resources are replaced by sustainable natural alternatives for the production of bio-based products such as bio-based plastics and energy. "Only by driving the transition in relevant markets, [...]
Berlin, 16 August 2018 - Researchers at ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) succeeded in an interdisciplinary study to demonstrate that soil microorganisms metabolically utilised the carbon in the PBAT polymer both for energy production and also to build up microbial biomass. The researchers used the biodegradable [...]
PHA from sewage sludge enters demonstration phase: The Phario project produces PHA at the biological sewage treatment plant in Bath, the Netherlands, which is run by the Brabantse Delta water board. The processes required for purifying sewage water breeds bacteria that can produce 0.47 grams of PHA per gram of organic matter in the [...]
The new German packaging law (Verpackungsgesetz, effective from January 2019, we reported earlier this year) includes provisions under which the participation fees for packaging shall be adapted in order to incentivise the use of recycled and renewable materials. The consequential increase in bio-based plastic packaging and the expected rise of new types of materials [...]
With growing market volumes of innovative bio-based and biodegradable plastics such as PLA (polylactic acid), the recycling of these materials is becoming a more viable option. We therefore spoke to Steve Dejonghe from Looplife Polymers Site, a recycler in Belgium that already successfully recycles PLA for a number of industrial projects, about the recyclability [...]
Berlin, 17 October 2017 – Biodegradable plastics offer innovative solutions to improve recycling quality by facilitating the means for more efficient separate waste collection. This has been confirmed by a recent study jointly released by Corepla, the Italian Consortium for Collecting, Recycling, and Recovering Plastic Packaging, the Italian Composters Consortium (CIC), and Assobioplastiche, the [...]
Berlin, 21 September 2017 – In the light of the current debates and consultations on the upcoming EU Strategy on Plastics and the revision of the EU waste legislation, European Bioplastics (EUBP), the association for the bioplastics industry in Europe, echoes the call for greater investments in the implementation of separate recycling streams, made [...]
On the occasion of the International Plastic Bag Free Day at the beginning of July, German-based research institute Fraunhofer UMSICHT published a position paper on plastic bags that looks at the pros and cons of the use of plastic bags compared to other alternatives such as paper or cotton bags from a scientific perspective, [...]
While there is no specific bioeconomy legislation, funding for bioeconomy research and innovation is a key policy tool for promoting the bioeconomy. EU funding mechanisms include notably the HORIZON 2020 framework programme, the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) and the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI). Some 5.6% (EUR 4208 million) of the [...]
Novamont, a leader in the development of bioplastics based in Italy, commissioned IGlux Witzenhausen GmbH and Witzenhausen-Institut GmbH to conduct a scientific study into the behaviour of biodegradable carrier bags made from MATER-BI – the bioplastic made by Novamont – in German anaerobic digestion plants. The use of biodegradable bags made from MATER-BI was tested [...]