Developing the first naturally biodegradable plastic for thermoforming applications

塑料垃圾是一场全球性危机。尽管近年来人们越来越意识到挑战的规模和消费者行为的变化，但塑料包装仍然没有得到充分的回收利用。在全球每年生产的1.41亿吨中，约有三分之一从收集系统泄漏，污染环境。在英国，塑料包装的回收利用仍然存在重大障碍，包括食品污染，多材料，小格式，质量差的可回收材料以及缺乏二级市场，目前只有10%的塑料包装被回收利用（绿色和平组织，2021年）。简而言之，回收（单独）不是解决方案。在英国塑料公约设定的目标的支持下，越来越多的人转向可生物降解和完全堆肥的替代品来解决这个问题。可堆肥塑料包装现在变得越来越普遍，成功的故事包括可生物降解的塑料薄膜，最近，可生物降解的塑料适用于注塑和热成型生产刚性包装应用。然而，解决方案在性能、成本和全球工业堆肥设施的有限可用性方面受到限制。Noroqest正在开创一类新的天然生物降解塑料，其专有的100%植物基生物材料来自可持续原料。其注塑应用的专利解决方案，包括市售的Nespresso兼容咖啡胶囊，已被证明在3-4个月内完全降解花园堆肥，没有留下任何污染物。Noroqest的目标是满足客户对自然生物降解解决方案日益增长的需求，这些解决方案与用于生产一次性食品包装应用的更具成本效益的热成型/挤出技术兼容（肉盘、三明治包、杯盖）。该项目的重点是开发一种新型生物聚合物配方，该配方具有与现有商业规模挤出设备和工业和家庭可堆肥性（即，Noroqest将通过现有的客户群利用成果，建立英国生产设施和供应链，以产生项目后的直接影响，并在商业规模扩大和试验后于2024年进入市场。

Plastic waste is a global crisis. Despite increasing awareness about the scale of the challenge and changing consumer behaviours in recent years, plastic packaging is still insufficiently recycled. Of the 141Mn tonnes produced globally each year, around 1/3rd leaks from collection systems, polluting the environment. In the UK, there are still significant barriers to the recycling of plastic packaging including food contamination, multi-materials, small formats, poor quality recyclables and a lack of secondary markets with just 10% currently recycled (Greenpeace, 2021). In short, recycling (alone) is not the solution.There is a growing movement towards biodegradable and fully compostable alternatives to combat this issue, supported by targets set by the UK's Plastic Pact. Compostable plastic packaging is now becoming increasing prevalent with success stories including biodegradable plastic films and more recently, biodegradable plastics suitable for injection moulding and thermoforming to produce rigid packaging applications. However, solutions are limited in terms of performance, cost and the limited availability of industrial composting facilities worldwide.Noroqest are pioneering a new class of naturally-biodegradable plastics, with proprietary 100% plant-based biomaterials derived from sustainable feedstocks. Its patented solution for injection moulded applications, including commercially-available Nespresso-compatible coffee pods, has been proven to fully degrade in garden compost within 3-4 months, leaving no contamination behind.Noroqest's goal is to meet increasing customer demand for naturally-biodegradable solutions compatible with more cost-effective thermoforming/extrusion techniques used to produce single-use food packaging applications (meat trays, sandwich packs, cup lids). The project focuses on developing a novel biopolymer formulation with optimised properties/characteristics compatible with existing commercial-scale extrusion equipment and current standards for industrial and home compostability (i.e., EN13432) and food safety.Noroqest will exploit outcomes through an existing customer base, with established UK production facilities and supply-chain to create immediate impact post-project, with market entry by 2024 following commercial scale-up and trials.