Jatorri naturaleko biofilmen garapena ekonomia zirkularra bultzatzeko: Development of natural origin biofilms for circular economy

Abstract

The production of plastics derived from petroleum is hastily increasing compared to other materials, because they are very versatile. Therefore, plastics can be found in multiple applications, such as polyvinyl chloride in everyday life in tapers or polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) in medical catheters. Among all the plastics that are produced, the European Union (EU) has classified plastic cutlery, straws and cotton sticks as single-use plastics (SUP). As the name suggests, these plastics are only used for a short period of time and in some cases just for a few seconds. In addition to their short life, other problems are involved. On the one hand, the production of these materials is based on petroleum, which is a non-renewable source, and on the other hand, long degradation times are required, in fact, several years. Once SUP have been used, currently there is not an adequate way to recycle them, since plastics are accumulated in dumpers or incinerated. In some cases, SUPs are not properly disposed and end up in our environment. In fact, the 80% of the garbage found in the sea is plastic and a plastic bag found there takes 20 years to degrade. In order to deal with all these problems, it is necessary to replace SUPs with new alternatives, such as bioplastics. This sort of plastics are obtained from biomass and also require less degradation times compared to petroleum derived plastics. Considering all explained, the main objective of this work is to reduce the production and use of food packaging made with SUP and replace them with bioplastics. To achieve this aim, paper will be used as food wrapping, which will be covered with starch bioplastic biofilms. Papers must exhibit grease, moisture and water vapor resistance and since they do not show these features, barrier properties will be added using kaolin inorganic fillers.