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bio-polymers 🍀
Definitions vs confusions
Bio-based plastics can be considered green as they are made from renewable resources. At the waste management step, a plastic is termed circular if its components are reused or recycled. As much as that plants use CO2 for growth and CO2 is emitted in aerobic degradation, bio-based and biodegradable plastics are circular. (link to the source)
Only a tiny fraction of the current market is addressed by the bio-polymers
Sometimes it is shocking to realise the scale of the plastic business. Recycled products and bio-based materials are entering fast into our mindsets yet they are still far from our supply chains. This is changing, thanks to such initiatives as ours 1+2 polymercircle.
Sankey diagram showing the MFA for fossil-carbon-based, bio-degradable, bio-based, and CO2-based plastics in 2019. Not that long time ago… While recycled plastics there are only 6.5% of the petro-based produced each year, the biodegradable plastics represents approximately 0.0005 % of all plastics produced every year. 1
This enormous potential is reflected in development of the bio plastic capacities, as captured below.2
Bio-polymers can make a big difference and showcasing use cases and making sure that this knowledge isn’t lost, its a part of our mission.
A list of my sources – an interesting articles abut bio-based polymers and its potential in replacing a fossil-fuel based materials.
https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cssc.202002044
https://chemrxiv.org/engage/chemrxiv/article-details/6256f9dc11b14670c52096e6
https://www.european-bioplastics.org/market/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772443323000272
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214289421001113?via%3Dihub
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41578-021-00407-8
