European project BIOnTop obtains promising results in development of new recyclable and compostable packaging

AIMPLAS is leading the BIOnTop project, whose objective is to develop new, competitive, low-cost, recyclable packaging solutions designed to be mechanically recycled, compostable either industrially or at home, or suitable for anaerobic digestion.

First year

In the first year of the project’s four-year development period, the project  partners started experimental work on copolymers and compounds with customized biodegradability and multifunctional coating solutions with customized properties. Although these tasks are currently ongoing, the first trials have shown promising results.

Another task performed in this first year was defining the specifications for PLA-based products with customized end of life and properties. Two technical deliverables and one scientific paper have been published with these initial project results.

1. The first deliverable is an extensive review of the state of the art, including scientific papers, patents and commercial information on biodegradable household packaging and textiles. The information in this deliverable was consulted to write the paper Bio-Based Packaging: Materials, Modifications, Industrial Applications and Sustainability, published in the international scientific journal Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360).
2. The second deliverable consists of a compilation of information on commercial biopolymers, additives and monomers, including suppliers and prices, in order to select the source materials to be used to start working with the laboratory scale-up formulation in upcoming project activities.

All three documents are accessible through the project website. The paper is also available on the journal website.

Consortium and funding

The project has been funded through the “Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking” within the EU Research and Innovation programme Horizon 2020 under grant agreement 837761, in which 20 partners and AIMPLAS are taking part:

BIO-MI DRUSTVO S OGRANICENOM ODGOVORNOSCU ZA PROIZVODNJU, ISTRAZIVANJE I RAZVOJ, CENTRE SCIENTIFIQUE & TECHNIQUE DE L’INDUSTRIE TEXTILE BELGE ASBL, CONSORZIO INTERUNIVERSITARIO NAZIONALE PER LA SCIENZA E TECNOLOGIA DEI MATERIALI, CRISTOBAL MESEGUER SA, EMSUR MACDONELL SA, ENCO SRL, EUROPEAN BIOPLASTICS EV, FACHHOCHSCHULE ALBSTADT-SIGMARINGEN, IRIS TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS SL, LABORATORI ARCHA SRL, MOVIMENTO CONSUMATORI, ORGANIC WASTE SYSTEMS NV, PLANET BIOPLASTICS SRL, QUESERIAS ENTREPINARES SA, ROMEI SRL, SILON SRO, SIOEN INDUSTRIES NV, TOTAL CORBION PLA BV, UBESOL SL, WEAREBIO OU.