Category Archives: News

UK to get first ever standard for biodegradable plastic following confusion over terminology

Amid concerns that manufacturers were misleading the public when using terms such as “biodegradable”, “bioplastic” and “compostable”, the UK government called for experts to help it develop standards for plastics. Hence, plastic will have to break down into organic matter and carbon dioxide in the open air within 2 years to be classed as biodegradable […]

Essential Requirements for Packaging should consider benefits of bioplastics

The European Commission (EC) is currently revising the Essential Requirements for Packaging as part of the amendment of the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive (PPWD). They relate to the manufacturing and composition of packaging, its reusable and recoverable nature as well as to the minimization of hazardous materials. These requirements, and the associated harmonised […]

Biowaste management remains untapped potential for the European Union

A report recently published by the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC) and Zero Waste Europe (ZWE) shows that with only 16% of the biowaste potential being used, the biowaste management still remains an untapped potential for the European Union to further transition to a Circular Economy. Both organizations jointly produced a first-of-its-kind report estimating the current […]

Study shows benefit of using compostable biowaste bags for quality of compost

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 25 […]

EU study lacks acknowledging benefits of compostable packaging

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 to the development […]

Major beverage producers join pioneer project with bio-based plastic bottles

Last week, The Guardian reported on an interesting project, which has a great potential to revolutionize the beverage industry. The Dutch renewable chemicals company Avantium developed a bio-based plastic bottle made from PEF, which could substitute the conventional plastic bottles made from fossil resources. The bioplastic bottle is designed to fully degrade within a year in a […]