Sustainably sourced biopolymers for use in complex paper 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，但同样-保护敏感的电子产品或电池内部。这些正是包装材料，不能回收，并在垃圾填埋场或焚化炉结束。包装材料，你今天可能已经处理，是那些与铝薄膜衬里。这种金属层阻挡了所有的气体传输，但同样，使回收和分离金属从塑料几乎是不可能的-所以实际上塑料不是唯一的恶棍。我们的项目旨在将金属从包装薄膜中剔除，并转向大自然寻求解决方案。壳聚糖是一种在真菌和昆虫/甲壳类动物外壳中发现的丰富的天然聚合物，其本身经过数十亿年的进化，比钢更坚固，完全不透空气和水。通过制造壳聚糖薄膜（以及我们的智能塑料库中的一点神奇的化学物质），我们可以创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。壳聚糖一旦被粉碎并混合回回收塑料中，就不会像金属那样降低其性能，而是实际上加强了回收材料。通过使用壳聚糖，我们可以使我们的包装材料成为家庭可堆肥和完全可持续的。我们提出了一个集中的产品开发，通过试点一种新的柔性薄膜，可以密封的味道，延长保质期，所有这一切都不需要混合金属到我们的塑料将我们的技术推向市场。我们希望对生物塑料的等待已经结束，英国可以成为这场革命的冠军。

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, but equally -- protect sensitive electronics or battery innards. These are precisely the packaging materials that can't be recycled and wind up in landfill or incinerators. The packaging materials, which you have likely handled today, are those with a lining of thin film of aluminium. This metal layer blocks all gas transmission, 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 metals out of packaging films and turn to nature for a solution. Chitosan is an abundant natural polymer found in fungi and insect/crustaceans shells and itself evolved over billions of years to be stronger than steel and completely impervious to air and water. By making thin films of chitosan (and a little magical chemistry from our Smart Plastics library), we can create layers that serve the function of metal coatings but remain totally biodegradable and recyclable. Chitosan once crushed and mixed back into a recycled plastic will not degrade its properties, as metal would, but in fact strengthen the recycled materials. By using chitosan, we can aim for our packaging materials to be home compostable and totally sustainable. We propose a focused product development to move our technology 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. We hope the wait for bioplastics is over and the UK can be the champion of this revolution.