Can Biodegradable Plastics Alleviate Single-Use Plastic Waste? Challenges and Opportunities in the Sustainable Packaging Sector

Plastics are used predominantly in the packaging sector because of their lightweight nature, convenience, and their protective capabilities of packaged products that have a required shelf-life. The world produces around 450 million tons/year of plastic, which is expected to surpass one billion tons/year by 2050. We create 300 metric tons/year of plastic waste that is nearly equivalent to the total human population as per a report by the UN. We need innovations and new approaches to alleviate the plastic waste concern. In addition, fossil fuel plastics represent 99% of plastics sold today and transitioning to green plastics would support the reduction of green house gas (GHG) emissions. The Recycling, reduce, reuse and resource recovery are some of the strategies for waste management. This presentation will highlight the pros and cons of bioplastics in reducing the plastic waste, especially the challenges and opportunities of biodegradable plastics in the packaging sectors. The main barrier to bioplastic adoption today is the price, compared to fossil fuel-based polymers. A cost-competitive and superior performance packaging can be manufactured through innovative compatibilized biodegradable blends and their bio-nano-composites.

Acknowledgements: i) Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Canada Discovery Grants (Project # 400320); ii) the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) – University of Guelph, the Bioeconomy Industrial Uses Research Program Theme (030177 and 030486); iii) OMAFRA-University of Guelph Gryphon’s Leading to the Accelerated Adoption of Innovative Research (LAAIR) Program (Project # 298635); iv) the Ontario Research Fund, Research Excellence Program Round-9 (ORF-RE09) from the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, Canada (Project #053970 and # 054345); and v) the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), Maple Leaf Food, Canada and Bank of Montreal (BMO), Canada through Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC) Bioproducts AgSci Cluster Program (Project # 054015, 054449 and 800148).