Development of a natural, waterproof, 60-day biodegradable, alginate material for lining paper-based cups and packaging

“在英国，每年有超过50亿件涂有塑料涂层的纸包装被扔掉，比如咖啡杯、汤盒和沙拉盒。尽管由95%的纸张和5%的防水聚乙烯衬里组成，但分离材料的技术难度和高昂的成本意味着，每400个材料中只有1个被回收，导致每年有2.5万吨被填埋。* Skipping Rocks Lab是一家创新的可持续包装初创公司，专注于开发天然的、可生物降解的塑料替代品。凭借超过30年的材料、化学和设计综合经验，我们率先使用天然材料，如褐海藻提取物海藻酸盐，来制造对环境影响较小的塑料替代材料和包装。*这导致了一个基本的实验室原型藻酸盐膜的发展，可用于封装水。这种薄膜呈球形，颜色透明，可食用，可生物降解，保质期为24小时。*在这一成功的基础上，我们打算研究/评估为硬纸板杯和其他纸制品制造一种防水的、完全可生物降解的海藻酸盐衬里的可能性/可行性——作为低密度聚乙烯（LDPE）塑料的替代品，LDPE塑料用于90%的防水纸制品。*为了解决这个问题，我们希望开发一种概念验证的、天然的、低成本的（与LDPE相当的）防水藻酸盐衬里材料——在室温下储存，衬里有0%的降解，使衬里产品可以保存数月或数年，但是当引入湿度和微生物活性时，即在堆肥中，衬里和产品在60天内完全可生物降解（LDPE 30多年，PLA在工业堆肥中120天，在垃圾填埋场中30年）。*该项目侧重于开发我们专有的海藻酸盐配方与不同植物提取物的交联，以确定哪种配方对衬里具有最佳的耐水性和粘度，确定天然粘合剂和生产海藻酸盐衬里纸的最佳方法。*替代技术确实存在，如蜡涂层、淀粉涂层和植物基聚乳酸（PLA）杯，但这些技术都不能在短时间内在自然环境中完全生物降解。*该项目是我们为可持续包装市场开发产品的第一步，预计到2018年价值2440亿美元（复合年增长率8.3% - Smithers Pira报告）。我们保守估计，到3日元时价值270万英镑（投资回报率为138%），到5日元时价值1310万英镑（投资回报率为650%）。”

"* Over 5bn items of plastic-coated paper packaging, such as coffee cups, soup cartons and salad boxes are thrown away in the UK each year. Despite being composed of 95% paper and 5% waterproof polyethylene lining, the technical difficulty and high cost associated with separating the materials mean that only 1 in 400 recycled, resulting in 25k tonnes going to landfill every year.* Skipping Rocks Lab is an innovative sustainable packaging start-up focused on the development of natural, biodegradable alternatives to plastics. With over 30 years combined material, chemistry and design experience, we are pioneering the use of natural materials such as alginate, an extract from brown seaweed, to create plastic alternative materials and packaging with low environmental impact.* This has resulted in the development of a basic lab prototype alginate membrane that can used to encapsulate water. Spherical and transparent in colour, the membrane is edible, biodegradable and has a shelf life of 24 hours.* Building upon this success, we intend to research the possibility/assess the feasibility of creating a water-proof, fully biodegradable, alginate lining for cardboard cups and other paper based products -- as an alternative to low density polyethylene (LDPE) plastic, which is used on 90% of waterproofed paper products.* To address this we wish to develop of a proof-of-concept, natural, low cost (LDPE-comparable) waterproof, alginate lining material - stored at room temperature the lining has 0% degradation, enabling lined products to be kept for months and years, however when introduced to humidity AND microbial activity i.e. in a compost, the lining and product are fully biodegradable in 60 days (LDPE 30+years, PLA 120 days in industrial composter, 30 years in landfill).* The project focuses on the development of cross linking our proprietary alginate formula with different plant extracts to determine which offers the best water resistance and viscosity for the lining, identification of a natural binding agent and best way to manufacture the alginate-lined paper.* Alternative technologies do exist such as wax-coating, starch-coating and plant-based polylactic acid (PLA) cups however none of these are fully biodegradable in the natural environment within a short space of time.* The project represents our first step to developing products for the sustainable packaging market, expected to be worth $244bn by 2018 (8.3% CAGR - Smithers Pira Report). We conservatively estimate these to be worth £2.7m (138% ROI) by Y3, £13.1m (650% ROI) by Y5\."