Page 28 - Plastics News July 2023

households, along with 323 kg of as- industrial composting (EN 13432) or daphnia,
sorted certified compostable pack- home composting (NF T51-800). The  All tested materials fully met the
aging. In parallel, a 'control' compost products were made from biodegrad- decay rate requirements of the
test was conducted with no packaging able and compostable resins like PLA, compostability standards.
added. PBAT, and complexed starch sourced  That, regarding the fate of residu-
The study was carried out over a from members of the French Asso- al compostable micro-fragments
four-month period from October ciation of Biobased Compostables, in- in the soil:
2022 to February 2023. It took place cluding Novamont and TotalEnergies
under real industrial composting con- Corbion.  Immediate further biodegrada-
ditions, without forced aeration, and The start of the test (left): certified tion of these fragments was dem-
was closely monitored by research- compostable shopping bags, trays, onstrated,
ers from the University of Montpellier coffee capsules and films are mixed  The rate of biodegradation in-
and AgroParisTech, in collaboration with organic waste at the. After com- creased as the fragments spent
with the industrial composting plat- posting (on the right side) composta- more time in the compost.
form of the Syndicat de Centre Hé- ble plastics are disintegrated and bio- "We are thrilled to see the findings
raut in Aspiran. degraded. of this study," said Paolo La Scola,
Next to to assessing the ‘real-life com- Regular checks were made and sam- the Public Affairs Manager at Total-
postability’ of certified biodegradable, ples were taken during the compost- Energies Corbion. "The results send
compostable materials, the study also ing process. The results showed: a strong signal to governments across
aimed to establish the properties of  That the addition of certified Europe to grant certified composta-
the micro-fragments generated dur- compostable packaging: ble plastics access to biowaste collec-
ing the composting process and their tion and composting infrastructure."
fate in agricultural soil, and the impact  Positively affected the compost- He continued: “It is essential that all
of these materials on the quality of the ing yield, stakeholders along the value chain
final compost. A number of different  Did not have any negative conse- cooperate for the recognition of the
types of commonly used packaging in quences on the agronomic qual- benefits of compostable packaging in
the European market were tested. ity of the final compost, separate collection and recycling of
These included compostable bags,  Did not generate ecotoxicity to food waste.”
film, food trays, and coffee pods com- higher plants, earthworms, and
posed of different resins certified for

KraussMaffei aims to simplify operation of Injection moulding machines with
'SmartOperation' system

chine operation, increases process structured manner by means of simple
stability and thus boosts efficiency in instructions. This ensures a standard-
production. In particular, machine op- ized, optimum production process.
erators without in-depth prior knowl- "smartOperation offers our custom-
edge of injection moulding technology ers the opportunity to significantly re-
benefit from the advantages of smart- duce the error rate in the operation
Operation. of injection moulding machines. In
he operation of injection mould- SmartOperation is an intuitive ma- addition, we are presenting a solution
Ting machines is often complex chine function that enables separation to counteract the global shortage of
and requires great technical expertise between process settings and the ac- skilled workers," says Bastian Eberle,
during the various process sequenc- tual operator interface. The machine IMM Product Manager at KraussMaf-
es. In SmartOperation, KraussMaffei operator is guided through the en- fei.
claims it now offers a digital service tire production process in a clear and
product that enables defect-free ma-

28 PLASTICS NEWS July 2023