Page 42 - Plastics News January 2023

AIMPLAS produces plastic film from coffee Goodyear unveils '90%
waste sustainable' road-

approved tire

kron, Ohio – Goodyear Tire &
ARubber Co. has advanced sus-
tainability efforts with the unveil-
ing of a 90% sustainable-material
onverting biological waste into These are three different ways to demo tire and plans to sell '70%
Cresources is one of the keys of recover common waste, in this sustainable' tires this year.
the circular economy, and the main case, coffee. Thanks to this project, In a statement 4 Jan, the US tire
objective of the European WaysTUP! various forms of urban biowaste, maker said the demo tire had
Project, financed by the Horizon including fish and meat waste, and “passed all applicable regulatory
H2020 programme, is working on used coffee grounds and cooking testing” as well as Goodyear’s in-
different lines of research to establish oil, are being transformed into new ternal testing for road use.
new value chains for the use of urban biobased products, such as food
biowaste. Within the framework of additives, condiments, insect protein, In tests, the demo tire showed a
this project, AIMPLAS, the Plastics bioethanol, biosolvents and bioplastics lower rolling resistance compared
Technology Centre, has produced a for packaging. to a reference tire made with con-
plastic film from used coffee grounds, The biobased plastic film produced ventional materials, potentially en-
thus transforming waste into a source by AIMPLAS was obtained from hancing fuel efficiency and carbon
of high-value products. PHA from restaurant coffee grounds footprint.
In the words of Nuria López, the collected by Bio-Bean (United Goodyear used 17 sustainable in-
project’s principal investigator at Kingdom). AIMPLAS first formulated gredients across 12 different com-
AIMPLAS, “WaysTUP! is a clear the PHA so it could be processed by ponents to create the 90% sustain-
example of how biowaste can play extrusion and then manufactured the
an important role in the transition film, which can be used in different able-material tire.
towards a circular economy by types of flexible packaging. These included four different types
avoiding biowaste generation and Citizen awareness of selective waste of carbon black, produced from
harnessing its potential as a source collection methane, carbon dioxide, plant-
of high-value secondary resources. In The WaysTUP! Project aims to based oil and end-of-life tire py-
our case, we’re transforming coffee improve the current perception of rolysis oil feedstocks.
waste into plastic film for packaging. citizens and local communities about Furthermore, the tire maker used
Meanwhile, other project partners, the importance of urban biowaste as
such as SAV – Agricultores de la Vega a resource. The idea is to promote soybean oil in the demo tire to
de Valencia, are project coordinating the community’s active participation keep the rubber compound pliable
partners responsible for recovering in selective urban biowaste collection in changing temperatures. Rice
waste to produce food additives, feed for subsequent recovery. husk waste-residue silica, mean-
and oils for the food and cosmetic while, replaces conventional silica.
industries.

42 PLASTICS NEWS January 2023