In the video below, Christiaan Bolck, programme manager biobased materials at Wageningen University and Research, introduces the topic of renewable materials for packaging.

MAIN TAKEAWAYS

• Christiaan Bolck describes three main categories of biobased plastics. The first are plastics made directly from polymers from biomass. The second are plastics made from polymerised monomers (the building blocks of polymers) extracted from biomass. The third are plastics made by microorganisms (such as bacteria) from biomass.
• The main benefit of biobased materials is that they don’t require non-renewable resources (such as oil) for their production.
• Like fossil based resources, biobased materials have their own challenges, such as the risk of deforestation and the safeguarding of labour conditions throughout their production chain.
• According to Christiaan Bolck, biomass is a viable alternative for fossil based resources for the plastics industry.