Sustainable compostable packaging formed from all natural materials

制造业的工业化大大降低了消费者的产品成本。一个不幸的副作用是被抛弃的社会，这是一种线性经济，在这种经济中，我们“接受-制造-处置”。在接下来的十年里，10亿吨油基塑料将被倾倒到垃圾填埋场，并渗入我们的海洋，其中大部分来自包装。这种塑料垃圾不仅破坏了我们的环境，还进入了我们的食物链。需要一种新的方法，一种循环经济，在这种经济中，我们消除浪费和对有限资源的依赖。该项目将开发一系列新的包装材料，即可生物降解的涂层薄膜，由可持续来源形成。然后，这些可以取代目前以化石燃料为基础的传统包装。我们需要建立在碳水化合物而不是碳氢化合物基础上的经济；植物生物聚合物是一种取之不尽、用之不竭的可再生分子资源，我们可以用它来制造材料、化学品和能源。这个跨学科的项目将学术界和工业界Futamura Chemical UK Ltd结合在一起，创造出下一代可持续的、全天然的、可堆肥的包装。这个项目有可能从根本上改变英国乃至世界各地的包装生产方式。它将通过将废物转化为包装来帮助实现更清洁的增长，减少我们对化石燃料的依赖，并且由于这里生产的材料是可堆肥的，将减少进入环境的塑料垃圾。这个项目的挑战是从天然废物来源中形成具有量身定制的薄膜阻隔性能的纤维素膜。我们已将番茄叶和橘子皮确定为“非竞争性废物流”，目前没有被焚烧或送往垃圾填埋场的天然家园。薄膜将需要所需的机械性能、光学性能、阻隔性能和可堆肥性。该项目将：量化和了解Futamura用番茄叶片生产的薄膜的性能；确定使用橙皮衍生配方涂覆这些薄膜对阻隔和机械性能的影响；了解薄膜微观性能(成分/取向/结构)与所生成的薄膜宏观性能之间的关系；以及评估薄膜的可堆肥性(土壤结构、释放的化学物质)。

Industrialisation of manufacturing has dramatically reduced the cost of products for consumers. An unfortunate side effect is the throw-away society, a linear economy in which we "take-make-dispose". Over the next decade a billion tonnes of oil-based plastic will be dumped into landfill and seep into our oceans, much from packaging. This plastic waste not only damages our environment, but also enters our food chain. A new approach is needed, a circular economy in which we eliminate waste and reliance on finite resources. This project will develop a new range of packaging materials, coated films that are biodegradable, formed from sustainable sources. These can then replace current conventional fossil-fuel based packaging. We need an economy built on carbohydrates not hydrocarbons; plant biopolymers are an inexhaustible renewable resource of molecules from which we can make materials, chemicals, and energy. This interdisciplinary project brings together academia with industry, Futamura Chemicals UK Ltd, to create a next generation of sustainable, all-natural, compostable packaging.This project has the potential to radically change how packaging is produced in the UK and then across the world. It will help deliver cleaner growth by transforming waste into packaging, reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, and as the materials here produced are compostable, will reduce plastic waste entering the environment. The challenge in this project is to form cellulosic films with tailored film barrier properties from natural waste sources. We have identified tomato leaf and orange peel as these are "non-competitive waste streams", with no natural home that are currently incinerated or sent to landfill. The films will need the required mechanical properties, optical properties, barrier properties and compostability.This project will: quantify and understand the properties of the films produced from tomato leaf by Futamura; determine the effect of coating these films with orange peel derived formulations on barrier and mechanical properties; understand the relationship between film microscopic properties (composition / orientation / structure) and the resultant film macroscopic properties; and assess the compostability of the films (soil structure, chemicals released).