Page 41 - Plastics News Issue May 2025
P. 41
FEATURE NEWS
Project on greener and
safer bioplastics for food packaging
he new Horizon Europe-funded GRECO shelf life.
project provides innovative biobased, bio-
Tdegradable and recyclable food packag- Aimplas is contributing to several tasks in
ing based on novel PLA copolymers, functional GRECO. “We are particularly excited to imple-
coatings, additives and green catalysts. GRECO ment reactive extrusion (REX) as a green chem-
aims to demonstrate the life cycle and techno- istry technology for developing tailor-made and
economic feasibility of greener and safer bio- safe-and-sustainable-by design PLA-based co-
plastics value chains for the food packaging sec- polymers for the food packaging sector, scal-
tor, based on a safe and sustainable-by-design ing them up to TRL 7”, said Belén Monje, leading
strategy. researcher on Sustainable Chemistry. “Specifi-
cally, the contribution on the development of
The GRECO project kick-off will take place in Va- PLA- copolymers by reactive extrusion and on
lencia at Aimplas on 16-17 June 2025. European the production of additives by mechanochemis-
Bioplastics and its members, including TotalEn- try is novel and groundbreaking and will make it
ergies Corbion, Aimplas, and Innotech Coexpan- possible to achieve more sustainable, biobased,
Emsur, are among the 22 partners that have recyclable and biodegradable PLA-compounds
joined forces to develop and implement “Innova- and coatings”.
tive biobased, biodegradable, recyclable, safe,
and circular food packaging” under the lead of Novel PLA copolymers will be developed and
the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH). optimised with the modelling tools to drive the
design of the polymers to improve the biodeg-
Dimitrios Bikiaris (AUTH), GRECO coordinator, radability, performance, production rates, yield,
indicates that “The GRECO project aligns with and quality in an iterative strategy.
the new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regu-
lation by developing biobased, biodegradable, “As part of GRECO, TotalEnergies Corbion is
and recyclable PLA copolymers for food pack- contributing to the development of new PLA
aging. Our goal is to create sustainable and cir- copolymers that deliver improved packaging
cular solutions that reduce waste and environ- performance and functionality, while boosting
mental impact”. recyclability and biodegradability”, said Jenifer
Mitja from TotalEnergies Corbion. She added:
At a demonstrative scale and in the real opera- “Significantly reducing carbon footprints, PLA’s
tional environment, GRECO will design, demon- versatility, biobased origin, and wide industrial
strate and scale up food packaging materials availability make it a key enabler in addressing
(e.g., flexible and rigid applications for cheese, the performance and sustainability requirements
processed meat, fresh meat, berries, and nuts) set by the new Packaging and Packaging Waste
that can meet diverse application needs, pre- Regulation”.
venting moisture and aroma loss and increasing
May 2025 PLASTICS NEWS 41
