Naturally sourced, sustainable and self healing flexible barrier packaging

塑料包装和与之相关的废物是现代生活中众所周知和痛苦的一部分。然而，我们都讨厌的是回收，回收和报废，而不是产品的便利，卫生和保质期。某些产品没有包装就不能出售，因为氧气和湿度会使食物变质和腐烂，或者让咖啡豆失去所有的香味。这些正是无法回收的包装材料，最终会被填埋或焚烧。这些包装材料，你今天可能已经处理过，是那些有金属衬里和铝薄膜的包装材料。这种金属层阻挡和密封了所有的味道和空气，但同样，使回收和分离金属从塑料几乎是不可能的-所以实际上塑料并不是唯一的恶棍。我们的项目旨在将铝从包装薄膜中剔除，并转向大自然寻求解决方案。纳米纤维素是我们所说的植物提取物--最纯净的植物物质，它本身经过数十亿年的进化，比钢铁还要坚固，完全不透气。通过制造这种纳米纤维素的薄膜（以及我们剑桥大学合作者的一点神奇化学），我们可以制造出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它的特性，而是事实上加强了回收材料。通过使用纳米纤维素，我们可以认为我们的包装材料是“单聚合物”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。我们提出了一个集中的产品开发，通过试用一种新的柔性薄膜，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，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，我们将从现在开始，确保我们的包装尽可能容易回收。

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.