The End of Plastic: Flexible Bio-based Home-compostable Packaging

塑料产量继续呈指数级增长，从1950年的每年150万吨增长到2018年的每年3.59亿吨。如果目前的生产和废物管理趋势继续下去，到2050年，大约有120亿吨塑料废物将进入垃圾填埋场或自然环境。塑料垃圾对海洋和陆地生物具有破坏性影响，新的研究表明，微塑料也可能对人类健康产生不利影响。The Shellworks是一家屡获殊荣的创业公司，由三名帝国理工学院的毕业生创立，旨在颠覆这个污染行业，一劳永逸地杜绝塑料包装废物。化妆品和个人护理行业是最大的污染源之一。根据Zero Waste Europe委托进行的一项研究，仅在2018年，我们对美容和个人护理产品的使用就产生了1420亿个包装。虽然传统的汽油基塑料的替代品存在，但它们仍然基本上没有出现在商店货架上。原因是它们往往不能充分满足工业需要，成本太高，而且在某些情况下对环境有害。Shellworks着手解决这些问题。在与我们的家庭可堆肥生物基硬包装建立商业合作伙伴关系后，我们在该项目中的具体目标是开发适用于管和可挤压瓶的新型软包装，以满足化妆品和个人护理行业的要求。这将涉及开发基于公司创新生物复合材料的新配方，该材料以农业废物为基础。我们的产品是真正可生物降解的，不需要工业堆肥设施，不像今天存在的许多生物聚合物基塑料。我们的成本已经低于我们的竞争对手，我们有很大的潜力进一步降低成本，这将使我们能够在长期内超越传统塑料。我们的包装具有高性能和美观性，这使得它对高附加值行业的客户具有吸引力。这笔赠款将帮助我们开发新的配方，以扩大产品范围。它还将使我们能够聘请人才，将我们的公司从一家初创公司转变为一家全球性企业。持续的COVID-19危机标志着塑料在所有行业的不幸卷土重来，加剧了对海洋和陆地生物的负面影响。我们认为，现在是时候让塑料垃圾成为过去，并在其位置上建立一个新的可持续产业。

Plastic production continues to grow exponentially from 1.5 million tonnes annually in 1950 to 359 million tonnes a year in 2018\. If current production and waste management trends continue, roughly 12 billion Mt of plastic waste will be in landfills or in the natural environment by 2050\. Plastic waste has a devastating impact on marine and terrestrial life and emerging research suggests micro-plastics may also have an adverse impact on human health. The Shellworks is an award-winning startup founded by three Imperial College graduates to disrupt this polluting industry and put an end to plastic packaging waste once and for all.The cosmetics and personal care industries are some of the biggest polluters. According to a study commissioned by Zero Waste Europe, our use of beauty and personal care products produced 142 billion units of packaging in 2018 alone. While alternatives to conventional petrol-based plastics exist, they are still largely absent from store shelves. The reason is that they often do not adequately respond to industry needs, are too costly and in some instances, just as environmentally harmful. The Shellworks set out to tackle these issues. After securing commercial partnerships for our home-compostable bio-based rigid packaging, our specific goal with this project is to develop novel flexible packaging suitable for tubes and squeezable bottles to address the requirements of the cosmetic and personal care industries.This will involve developing new formulations based on the company's innovative biocomposite material, which is based on agricultural waste. Our product is truly biodegradable without the need for industrial composting facilities, unlike many biopolymer-based plastics that exist today. Our costs are already lower than our competitors' and we have a great potential for further cost reductions, which would allow us to outcompete conventional plastic in the long-run. Our packaging is highly performant and aesthetic, which makes it attractive for clients in high value-added sectors.The grant will help us develop new formulations to expand or product range. It would also allow us to hire talent to transform our company from a startup to a global player. The ongoing covid-19 crisis marks an unfortunate comeback for plastics in all sectors, aggravating the negative impact on both marine and terrestrial life. We believe that it is time to make plastic waste a thing of the past and build a new sustainable industry in its place.