Industry and research didn’t wait the single-use plastic ban to develop new types of biodegradable /renewable plastics but it seems that we have now a winner !
We found the holy grail with: the PHA family ! (polyhydroxyalkanoate produced by bacteria)
There have been several developments around the capabilities and production of PHA in 2018 with Danimer Scientific and PepsiCo for Flexible material and with Nestle for rigid plastic bottle and before that time with Metabolix and others
The beauty of this product is that its environmental performance is “miraculous” ;- PHA can be produced by several bacteria from a variety of sources including waste
PHA is #marine biodegradable
PHA is #compostable
PHA can be produce with nearly any type of carbon sources :
-Crop, plant, #by-products of agriculture
- Waste
- Sewage sludge (used water)
5. PHA performance seems also promising – you can make “a la carte” functionality do give the right performance of the packaging.
the only issue we may have is about recyclability: IT IS RECYCLABLE …but chemical recycling infrastructure doesn’t exist – neither collection yet. ( PHA as PLA need to be separated from PET waste stream today)
So , we have a fantastic material , don’t we think that we should develop the collection/ recycling stream at the same time than the product?
This is was tetrapack did in the past with beverage carton … and it works quite well so , why not doing it now for PHA ? collaboration in the whole value chain is crucial.
I believe we should collaborate and globally focus our effort to make it real !
references:
- chemical recycling of polyhydroxyalkanoates as a method towards sustainable development