Historically, the very first plastic materials used industrially by man were of natural origin.

Before mastering monomers obtained from refining oil, starting from the 1930s, several objects
used in daily life were manufactured using biobased polymers.

The resources used were natural rubber (discovered in the 18th century), cellulose with
Parkesine, Celluloid or even Cellophane at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the
20th century or even milk components like casein which resulted in the manufacturing of
Galalith in 1897.

Decades later in 1947, Rilsan (or Polyamide 11) was the first technical bioplastic introduced on
the market, with its excellent mechanical properties and chemical resistance.

It was then followed in the 1990s by bioplastics which are well-known today, PLA, PHAs or
even plasticised starches which benefited from the rapid technical advances in green chemistry
and white chemistry in recovery of biomass (starches, sugars, cellulose, etc.).

In addition to biobased and/or biodegradable polymers which are created regularly like PEF, the
main developments are based on the diversification of the resources used to produce these
materials, with the essential part of the work being focused on the reclamation of by-products or
waste material from various biomasses.

Biodegradable plastics are made from all-natural plant materials. These can include corn oil,
orange peels, starch, and plants. Traditional plastic is made with chemical fillers that can be
harmful to the environment when released when the plastic is melted down.

http://natureplast.eu/en/the-bioplastics-market/history-of-bioplastics/

1.500 BCE – MesoAmerican cultures (Olmec, Maya, Aztecs) use natural latex and rubber to
make balls, containers and make their clothes waterproof.

1862 – Alexander Parkes (UK) creates Parkesine, the first man-made plastic made from
cellulose. Parkesine was a biobased plastic, a bioplastic.

1897 – Galalith is invented by German chemists. It’s a biodegradable plastic made from casein
(milk). Commercial breakthrough was limited for several reasons. Galalith could not be
moulded. Milk was scarce and the development of oil-based plastics were boosted during WWI.
Galalith is still used today to make buttons.
Plastiphobia, Singapore, Compostable Plastics, Doorknobs and Carbios

1926 – Maurice Lemoigne (FR) developed polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) from bacterium Bacillus
megaterium. This was the first bioplastics made from bacteria. The principle is easy: when
humans eat sugar, they will put on fat. When bacteria absorb sugars, they will produce polymers.

1907 – Leo Baekeland (BE) invented Bakelite that was coined a ‘National Historic Chemical
Landmark’ due to its importance. Bakelite was a synthetic plastic that was revolutionary for its
electrical non-conductivity and heat-resistant properties in electrical insulators, radio and
telephone casings and other products such as kitchenware, jewelry, toys and firearms. Leo hit the
jackpot with Bakelite.

1912 – Brandenberger (CH) invents and patents Cellophane, a transparent sheet made from
wood, cotton or hemp cellulose. Cellophane is a trade mark and a generic term. The registered
trademark is currently property of Futamura Chemical UK.

1930s – Henry Ford (US) used bioplastics made from soy beans for some car parts. Ford stopped
using soy plastics after WWII because of the abundance of cheap oil supply.

1947 – Rilsan (polyamide 11 or nylon 11) was patented by Organico. Carmaker Citroen used it
for its DS cars. The brand is currently owned by Arkema (FR).

1950-60s – W.R. Grace (US) evaluates if bioplastics (PHA and PHB) can be produced from
microbes and bacteria on a commercial scale. They apply for several patents but loose interest
because of cheap oil.

1973 – Oil and Energy crisis because of the embargo of Arab oil producing countries to show
support for Palestine. Rising oil prices and dependence to oil in the 1970s became the driver for
the development of bioplastics.
1975 – A team of Japanese scientists discover the principle of biodegradable plastics. They
discovered a bacteria (Flavobacterium) that broke down nylon in pools containing waste water
from a nylon factory.

1979 – Iranian Revolution and Iran Iraq War causes expensive oil prices, huge debts and deficits
in Western democracies. This will lead to overproduction and oversupply of oil in the 1980s
making it less urgent to find alternatives to oil-based plastics.

1983 – Imperial Chemical Industries (UK) and a local venture capital firm (Marlborough Teeside
Management) create the first bioplastics company, Marlborough Biopolymers. Their bioplastics
was made by bacteria and was called Biopol. The bacteria-produced Biopol could be processed
into strips, filaments, chips, panels and powders.

1990 – Bioplastics company Novamont (IT) is established. Novamont is seen as the Bioplastics
industry leader. It’s probably the only bioplastics company who managed to keep its head above
the water, commercially and financially speaking.

1992 – Chris Somerville from Michigan State University reported in the journal Science that
bioplastics (PHB) could be produced from a plant called Arabidopsis thaliana.

1996 – Monsanto acquires the Biopol business from Zeneca and start using plants to produce
bioplastics instead of microbes and bacteria.

1997 – Cargill and Dow chemicals set up the Cargill and Dow Chemicals joint venture with the
intention to produce bioplastics from corn. The joint venture starts producing PLA in 2001. The
company was rebranded NatureWorks in 2005 and is the leading PLA producer.

2001 – Metabolix Inc. purchased Monsanto’s Biopol assets.

2001 – University of Lincoln (UK) researcher, Nick Tucker, was the first to use elephant grass in
the production of bioplastic articles.

2010 – Rémy Lucas (FR) establishes Algopack, the first bioplastics company that uses seaweed
as biomass. Seaweed don’t need fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides or land. The seaweed
bioplastics biodegrades within 12 weeks in soil and 5 hours in water.

2013 – Bioplasticsnews.com is established.

2018 – Arctic Biomaterials (FI) manage to reinforce PLA with biodegradable glass fibre. Their
technology will enable PLA upgrade.

2018 – Neste (FI) starts industrial production of Bio-polypropylene (Bio-PP) for home furniture
company IKEA. Polypropylene (PP) is the second most used plastics after Polyethylene (PE)
with global sales reaching 145 billon $. Neste could replace fossil-based PP with bio-PP and
become a major player.

2014 – First Bio-based material for ski boots is launched under the brand Pebax (Arkema)

2018 – Project Effective was launched with the purpose to replace nylon with bio-nylon.

2018 – First prototype car made completely from bioplastics

2018 – First packaging made from a fruit.

https://bioplasticsnews.com/2018/07/05/history-of-bioplastics/

A method of transforming banana plantation waste into a biodegradable and recyclable

packaging material has been developed.
Associate Professor Jayashree Arcot and Professor Martina Stenzel from the University of New
South Wales (UNSW) were looking for ways to convert agricultural waste into something that
could value add to the industry it came from while potentially solving problems for another.

A good contender was the banana growing industry which, according to Arcot, produces large
amounts of organic waste, with only 12% of the plant being used (the fruit) while the rest is
discarded after harvest.

“What makes the banana growing business particularly wasteful compared to other fruit crops is
the fact that the plant dies after each harvest,” said Arcot, UNSW School of Chemical
Engineering.

“We were particularly interested in the pseudostems – basically the layered, fleshy trunk of the
plant which is cut down after each harvest and mostly discarded on the field. Some of it is used
for textiles, some as compost, but other than that, it’s a huge waste.”

Arcot and Stenzel (UNSW School of Chemistry) wondered whether the pseudostems would be
valuable sources of cellulose – an important structural component of plant cell walls – that could
be used in packaging, paper products, textiles and even medical applications such as wound
healing and drug delivery.

Using a reliable supply of pseudostem material from banana plants grown at the Royal Botanic
Garden Sydney, the duo set to work in extracting cellulose to test its suitability as a packaging
alternative.

“The pseudostem is 90% water, so the solid material ends up reducing down to about 10%,”
Arcot said. “We bring the pseudostem into the lab and chop it into pieces, dry it at very low
temperatures in a drying oven, and then mill it into a very fine powder.”

Stenzel added: “We then take this powder and wash it with a very soft chemical treatment. This
isolates what we call nano-cellulose which is a material of high value with a whole range of
applications. One of those applications that interested us greatly was packaging, particularly
single-use food packaging where so much ends up in landfill.”

When processed, the material has a consistency similar to baking paper.

Arcot said depending on the intended thickness, the material could be used in several different
formats in food packaging. “There are some options at this point, we could make a shopping bag,
for example,” she said.

“Or depending on how we pour the material and how thick we make it, we could make the trays
that you see for meat and fruit. Except of course, instead of being foam, it is a material that is
completely non-toxic, biodegradable and recyclable.”

Arcot said she and Stenzel have confirmed in tests that the material breaks down organically
after putting ‘films’ of the cellulose material in soil for six months. The results showed that the
sheets of cellulose were well on the way to disintegrating in the soil samples.

“The material is also recyclable. One of our PhD students proved that we can recycle this for
three times without any change in properties,” Arcot said.

“We tested the material with food samples to see whether there was any leaching into the cells,”
Stenzel said. “We didn’t see any of that. I also tested it on mammalian cells, cancer cells, T-cells
and it’s all non-toxic to them. So if the T-cells are happy – because they’re usually sensitive to
anything that’s toxic – then it’s very benign.”

The researchers say that for the banana pseudostem to be a realistic alternative to plastic bags
and food packaging, it would make sense for the banana industry to start the processing of the
pseudostems into powder which they could then sell to packaging suppliers.
“If the banana industry can come on board, and they say to their farmers or growers that there’s a
lot of value in using those pseudostems to make into a powder which you could then sell, that’s a
much better option for them as well as for us,” Arcot said.

And at the other end of the supply chain, if packaging manufacturers updated their machines to
be able to fabricate the nano-cellulose film into bags and other food packaging materials, then
banana pseudostems stand a real chance of making food packaging much more sustainable.

https://www.fdiforum.net/mag/packaging/biodegradable-packaging-made-from-banana-waste/

Traditional plastic bags

How are traditional plastic bags detrimental to our environment? Let me count the ways. Single-
use plastic bags have an average life span of 12 minutes, and worldwide we are using 2 million
of these every sixty seconds.

Polyethene bags are made from a non-renewable resource, and are incredibly harmful to the
marine environment as they never biodegrade. Instead, they will simply break into smaller and
smaller pieces over hundreds of years, inflicting untold amounts of damage to natural
ecosystems.

Read more: 200 000 Plastic Bags Dumped Into Landfill Every Hour

Image: Troy Mayne

Biodegradable plastic bags

To put it simply, something is biodegradable when living things, like fungi or bacteria, can break
it down. Biodegradable bags are made from plant-based materials like corn and wheat starch
rather than petroleum. However when it comes to this kind of plastic, there are certain conditions
required for the bag to begin to biodegrade.
Firstly, temperatures need to reach 50 degrees Celsius. Secondly, the bag needs to be exposed to
UV light. In an oceanic environment, you'd be hard pressed to meet either of these criteria. Plus,
if biodegradable bags are sent to landfill, they break down without oxygen to produce methane, a
greenhouse gas with a warming capacity 21 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

Degradable or 'oxo-degradable' plastic bags

Degradable items don't have living organisms as a crucial part of the breakdown process.
Degradable bags cannot be classed as biodegradable or compostable. Instead, chemical additives
used in the plastic allow the bag to break down quicker than a standard plastic bag usually
would.

Essentially bags touted as 'degradable' are definitely not beneficial, and can even be worse for
the environment! Degradable bags that disintegrate just become tinier and tinier pieces of
microplastic quicker, and still pose serious threats to marine life. Microplastics enter the food
chain lower down, getting eaten by smaller species and then continuing to make their way up the
food chain as these smaller species are consumed.

Compostable plastic bags

The word 'compostable' is incredibly misleading for the average consumer. You'd think a bag
labeled 'compostable' would mean you could throw it in your backyard compost alongside your
fruit and vegie scraps, right? Wrong. Compostable bags biodegrade, but only under certain
conditions.

Compostable bags need to be composted in a specific composting facility, of which there are
very few of in Australia. Compostable bags are generally made from plant material that return to
base organic components when processed by these facilities, but the problem lies in the fact there
are thus far only 150 of these facilities Australia wide.

Can I recycle plastic bags?

Plastic bags, biodegradable, degradable and compostable bags cannot be placed in your standard
recycling bin at home. They can severely interfere with the recycling process if they are.
However, your local supermarket may offer plastic bag recycling. Some supermarkets can also
recycle 'green bags' that are torn or no longer used. Find your nearest location here.

https://www.1millionwomen.com.au/blog/plastic-bags-whats-difference-between-degradable-
compostable-and-biodegradable/

A company in Indonesia has created a plastic bag so eco-friendly you can eat it.

It’s made out of cassava, the vegetable root which is a staple in the diets of many in Africa, Latin
America and Asia, but which can also be used in manufacturing.

The company, Avani Eco based in Bali, has created a bag that they say looks and feels like
plastic, but is completely degradable and compostable.

It also dissolves in water, so if animals eat it, it won’t cause any harm. They say it’s so safe, in
fact, that humans could even swallow it.

Image: AvaniEco

Indonesia has a massive plastic pollution problem. Discarded plastic is choking its rivers and
smothering its previously pristine beaches. “Our country is drowning in plastic” says Kevin
Kumala, Chief Green Officer at the company.

The problem has become so acute that the army has been drafted in to help clear the waste. But
it’s an uphill struggle. As they clear the waste, more appears.

The global plastics problem

Plastic pollution is a problem all over the world.

Each year, at least 8 million tonnes of plastics find their way into the ocean, the equivalent of
dumping the contents of one garbage truck into the ocean every minute.

Sea life and birds die from eating it or getting tangled in it. The plastic is also broken down in the
ocean, becoming small enough to enter the food chain.

Only 14% of plastic packaging is collected for recycling, while most plastic packaging is used
only once. In addition, 95% of the value of plastic packaging material, worth between $80 billion
and $120 billion annually, is lost to the economy.

It’s a massive problem, but one that has prompted many to try and find a solution.

The New Plastics Economy

The New Plastics Economy, an initiative by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, brings together
key players including innovators and manufacturers, to rethink and redesign the future of
plastics, starting with packaging.

The basic idea is to turn plastic’s linear economy - use it and discard it - into a circular one,
where the plastic can be either reused or recycled.

One of the Foundation's major projects is a $2m New Plastics Economy Innovation Prize. The
prize is split into two parts, The Circular Design Challenge, which invites ideas on how to
change the way packaging is designed, and the the Circular Materials Challenge, which invites
ideas on how to replace plastic with other materials.
New solutions for plastic

Image: TrioCup

Among the winners of the design challenge is one that attempts to solve the take-away coffee
problem.

More than 100 billion disposable coffee cups are sold globally every year, yet hardly any are
recycled.

US-based start-up Trio-Cup has designed a disposable paper cup with an origami-like technique
that removes the need for a plastic lid. It’s made from a 100% compostable material.

Image: VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

Among the winners of the materials challenge is VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland,
with packaging that looks and feels like plastic, but is made from wood.

The substance is a compostable multi-layer material sourced from agricultural and forestry by-
products, which could be used to package products like muesli, nuts, and cheese. In theory, this
type of packaging could replace up to 15% of the current plastic barrier film market.

Plastic waste clogging up Jakarta’s waterways is the inspiration for the materials challenge
design by Evoware.

The company has designed a solution to the single use food wrappings, such as sauce sachets and
food wraps, that are so small that they escape collection and end up on beaches, in rivers, or the
ocean.
It has made food wrappings and sachets out of a seaweed-based material that can be dissolved in
water or eaten. It can even feed plants - it's100% biodegradable and contains vitamins and
minerals, making it a natural fertilizer for plants.

The winners of the innovation prize will join a 12 month accelerator programme, in collaboration
with Think Beyond Plastic, working with experts to make their innovations marketable at scale.

However, while the winning innovations represent the type of solutions we need to build a
plastics system that works, these entrepreneurs cannot drive the transition alone, says the Ellen
MacArthur Foundation. Businesses, policy makers, and investors too, need to make clear
commitments and collaborate towards a circular economy for plastics.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/05/this-plastic-bag-is-100-biodegradable-and-made-of-
plants/