Going beyond the previous generalisation, what exactly do we mean when we talk about renewable and/ or biobased materials? Below we have summarized a few key definitions [1]:

Biobased: A product or material is considered ‘biobased’ if it is completely or partially derived from biomass. This includes harvested plant based materials such as wood, animal based materials such as wool, processed biomass such as paper, and man made materials derived from natural sources such as the plastic PLA which is made from sugars.

Renewable: A resource is considered  ‘renewable’ if it can be naturally regenerated on a human timescale. This means that the rate of regeneration has to keep up with harvesting and consumption. Therefore biobased does not necessarily mean renewable: regeneration of tropical hardwood, for instance, does not naturally keep up with logging activities.

Further reading

[1]  Van den Oever, M., Molenveld, K., Van der Zee, M., & Bos, H. (2017). Bio-based and biodegradable plastics – Facts and Figures.