Bioplastics, the environmentally-friendly green business
Research into bioplastics, a degradable material that is a substitute for common plastic, is making great strides. News of inventions as bizarre as they are ingenious bounce here and there from all over the globe. This time we are going to talk about the latest discovery by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, in the United States. U.S. scientists have devised a product made from the shell of crabs and the fibers of trees. The result? A thin and flexible material, similar to the food film used for food preservation. According to the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, this new film is particularly suitable for food preservation, because its structure made of microfibers acts as a barrier against oxygen. And it is well known that in order to preserve food, it is necessary to prevent it from coming into contact with oxygen in the air, because the gas activates food spoil processes. The next step, however, will have to make bio-plastic film economically competitive with traditional films, developing a large-scale production process.
For years, in fact, people have been looking for natural alternatives to plastic, a non-biodegradable material that “pollutes the seas of Europe and the world“. The main candidates are materials made from plant cellulose and chitin, which is present in shells of mollusks, insects and fungi. According to the specialized magazine Industria Italiana, the
bioeconomy
sector is worth over 2 trillion euros and has about 18 million workers. A mare magnum within which the bioplastics sector and the business of compostable bags stand out, which makes up two-thirds of it. According to experts at the Nova Institute, an independent German research center, the market for compostable and biodegradable plastic products grew to 100,000 tons in 2015, and could grow to over 300,000 tons in 2020, if the regulatory framework were to be set more favorably.
That said, Italy is a leader in this sector. When in 2015 Europe enacted a law to reduce the number of single-use bags, Italy was one of the first European countries to implement the rule in its legal system, becoming a leader in the world of compostable bags. According to data from the research company Plastic Consult, the Italian supply chain is worth 400 million euros. Unfortunately, however, almost 60% of the envelopes in circulation are still not compliant with the law but don’t worry, we are on the right track. “In recent years, companies have worked to give paper packaging the same performance as plastic,” explains Eliana Farotto, head of research at Comieco, the consortium of Italian companies that recycle this material. The solution is the coupling of paper with bioplastics. This means that the packaging can be disposed of with cardboard or, if dirty, with organic waste“.
The problem of polluting packaging, in fact, has become even more serious with the spread of home meal deliveries (services of companies such as Foodora, Deliveroo). The plastic bins of Italian families, already full of supermarket packaging, have become saturated with a flood of plates, trays, bottles and containers brought by the “riders”.
And we at VMEngine, who have always been sensitive to environmental issues, are learning to give up disposable plastic with simple daily gestures because even from our small headquarters that every day looks at the sea with respect and love. Thanks to the foresight of
Fabio Cecaro
, one of Italy’s leading experts in Cloud Computing, we will soon make sure to get rid of all those plastics that pollute our planet. After all, as our Fabio would say, “
it’s the small gestures that make the world big
“.
