Naturally sourced, sustainable and self healing flexible barrier packaging

天然来源、可持续且可自我修复的柔性阻隔包装

• 批准号: 10021522
• 金额: $ 26.68万
• 依托单位: CAMBRIDGE SMART PLASTICS LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10021522
• 关键词: Naturally; sourced; sustainable; self; healing

Plastic packaging and the waste associated with it is a well-known and painful part of modern life. However, it is the recycling, recovery, and end-of-life that we all hate, not the added convenience, hygiene, and shelf-life of products. Certain products just could not be sold without packaging, as oxygen and humidity would spoil and rot the food or let coffee beans lose all their aroma. These are precisely the packaging materials that can't be recycled and wind up in landfill or incinerators.These packaging materials, which you have likely handled today, are those with metal linings and thin films of aluminium. This metal layer blocks and seals in all the flavour and air, but equally, makes recycling and separating the metal from the plastic nearly impossible -- so actually plastic is not the only villain here...Our project aims to kick aluminium out of packaging films and turn to nature for a solution. Nanocellulose is what we call the plant extract we use -- the purest form of plant matter and itself evolved over billions of years to be stronger than steel and completely impervious to air. By making thin films of this nanocellulose (and a little magically chemistry from our University of Cambridge collaborators), we can create layers that serve the function of metal coatings but remain totally biodegradable and recyclable. Nanocellulose once crushed and mixed back into a recycled plastic will not destroy it's properties, as metal would, but in fact strengthen the recycled materials. By using nanocellulose, we can consider our packaging materials are "monopolymer" or single plastic. This is the key to recycling as separating is the major cost and problem with plastics recycling.We propose a focused product development to move our technology from the lab into the market by piloting a new flexible film that can seal in flavour, extend shelf-lives, and all of this without the need for mixing metals into our plastic. While we wait for bioplastics and the future of polymer science to find a solution, we will start right now by ensuring as much of our packaging is as easily recycled as possible.

塑料包装及其相关废物是现代生活中众所周知且令人痛苦的一部分。然而，我们都讨厌的是回收、回收和报废，而不是产品增加的便利性、卫生和保质期。某些产品在没有包装的情况下就无法销售，因为氧气和湿度会导致食物变质和腐烂，或者让咖啡豆失去所有香气。这些正是无法回收并最终被扔进垃圾填埋场或焚烧炉的包装材料。您今天可能处理过的这些包装材料是带有金属衬里和铝薄膜的包装材料。这种金属层阻挡并密封了所有的味道和空气，但同样地，使得回收和将金属与塑料分离几乎是不可能的——所以实际上塑料并不是这里唯一的恶棍……我们的项目旨在将铝从包装薄膜中剔除，并向大自然寻求解决方案。纳米纤维素就是我们所说的我们使用的植物提取物——植物物质的最纯净形式，其本身经过数十亿年的进化，比钢铁更坚固，并且完全不透气。通过制作这种纳米纤维素薄膜（以及我们剑桥大学合作者的一些神奇化学物质），我们可以创建具有金属涂层功能的层，但仍然完全可生物降解和可回收。纳米纤维素一旦被粉碎并混合回回收塑料中，就不会像金属那样破坏其性能，而且实际上会增强回收材料的强度。通过使用纳米纤维素，我们可以认为我们的包装材料是“单体”或单一塑料。这是回收的关键，因为分离是塑料回收的主要成本和问题。我们建议进行重点产品开发，通过试验一种新型柔性薄膜，将我们的技术从实验室推向市场，这种薄膜可以密封味道、延长保质期，而所有这些都不需要将金属混合到我们的塑料中。在我们等待生物塑料和聚合物科学的未来找到解决方案的同时，我们将立即开始确保我们的包装尽可能容易回收。