1

Francesco Degli Innocenti Ecology of Products & Environmental Communication Director

Novamont February 1st , 2017

End of life of biodegradable packaging and products

2 NOVAMONT

Since 1991 research, development and production of biodegradable plastics Headquarter: Novara (Milan area) Main product : Mater-Bi

3

• Biodegradable plastics are useful tools in the separate collection of bio-waste

4 Different materials are sorted into two different bins

Plastics waste

Organic waste

5 Two different recycling processes

6 Two different «end-of-waste»

7 Bio-based biodegradable plastics are suitable for organic recycling and the circular economy

Biodegradable plastics are suitable for organic recycling. • waste bags • food packaging • single-use tableware strengthen organic recycling as a way to increase production of organic soil improvers and fertilizers.

8 When does biodegradation make sense?

with B&C tableware

with traditional tableware

or…

Bio-bin

9 BP do not ruin the recycling of plastics BP are collected into a specific waste stream (bio-waste). An effort to reduce missorting of all packaging and products must be spent! For example: frequently non-biodegradable plastics affect compost quality. CONAI (Italian National Consortium for packaging recovery http://www.conai.org/ ) accepts compostable packaging for recovery together with traditional plastic packaging. Biodegradable and Compostable packaging are equalized to traditional plastic packaging This decision was the result of a long and careful study carried out by CONAI, presented at the 2013 annual conference of European Bioplastics

http://www.polimerica.it/articolo.asp?id=12278

10 The field of biodegradable plastics is one of the most standardized sector…

EN 134332:2000 Packaging - Requirements for packaging recoverable through composting and biodegradation - Test scheme and evaluation criteria for the final acceptance of packaging EN 14045:2003 Packaging - Evaluation of the disintegration of packaging materials in practical oriented tests under defined composting conditions EN 14046:2003 Packaging - Evaluation of the ultimate aerobic biodegradability of packaging materials under controlled composting conditions - Method by analysis of released carbon dioxide EN 14047:2002 Packaging - Determination of the ultimate aerobic biodegradability of packaging materials in an aqueous medium - Method by analysis of evolved carbon dioxide EN 14048:2002 Packaging - Determination of the ultimate aerobic biodegradability of packaging materials in an aqueous medium - Method by measuring the oxygen demand in a closed respirometer EN 14987:2006 Plastics - Evaluation of disposability in waste water treatment plants - Test scheme for final acceptance and specifications EN 14995:2006 Plastics - Evaluation of compostability - Test scheme and specifications EN ISO 14851:2004 Determination of the ultimate aerobic biodegradability of plastic materials in an aqueous medium - Method by measuring the oxygen demand in a closed respirometer (ISO 14851:1999) EN ISO 14852:2004 Determination of the ultimate aerobic biodegradability of plastic materials in an aqueous medium - Method by analysis of evolved carbon dioxide (ISO 14852:1999) EN ISO 14855-1:2012 Determination of the ultimate aerobic biodegradability of plastic materials under controlled composting conditions - Method by analysis of evolved carbon dioxide - Part 1: General method (ISO 14855-1:2012) EN ISO 14855-2:2009 Determination of the ultimate aerobic biodegradability of plastic materials under controlled composting conditions - Method by analysis of evolved carbon dioxide - Part 2: Gravimetric measurement of carbon dioxide evolved in a laboratory-scale test (ISO 14855-2:2007, including Cor 1:2009 EN ISO 17556:2012 Plastics - Determination of the ultimate aerobic biodegradability of plastic materials in soil by measuring the oxygen demand in a respirometer or the amount of carbon dioxide evolved (ISO 17556:2012) EN ISO 20200:2015 Plastics - Determination of the degree of disintegration of plastic materials under simulated composting conditions in a laboratory-scale test (ISO 20200:2015) ISO 10210:2012 Plastics -- Methods for the preparation of samples for biodegradation testing of plastic materials ISO 13975:2012 Plastics -- Determination of the ultimate anaerobic biodegradation of plastic materials in controlled slurry digestion systems -- Method by measurement of biogas production ISO 15985:2014 Plastics -- Determination of the ultimate anaerobic biodegradation under high-solids anaerobic-digestion conditions -- Method by analysis of released biogas ISO 18830:2016 Plastics -- Determination of aerobic biodegradation of non-floating plastic materials in a seawater/sandy sediment interface -- Method by measuring the oxygen demand in closed respirometer ISO 19679:2016 Plastics -- Determination of aerobic biodegradation of non-floating plastic materials in a seawater/sediment interface -- Method by analysis of evolved carbon dioxide ISO 16929:2013 Plastics -- Determination of the degree of disintegration of plastic materials under defined composting conditions in a pilot-scale test ISO 18606:2013 Packaging and the environment -- Organic recycling

11 Biodegradation of BP in soil

BP are also applied in agriculture. Biodegradable films are used as mulch to control weeds. Relevant standard specifications are already available1 and some under preparation 2.

• (1) Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA. National Organic Program; Proposed: Amendments to the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances (Crops and Processing), 7 CFR Part 205, Document Number AMS–NOP–13–0011, NOP–13–01PR; http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-08-22/pdf/2013-20476.pdf

• (2) DRAFT prEN 17033 Plastics - Biodegradable mulch films for use in agriculture and horticulture - Requirements and test methods

12 Biodegradation of BP in marine environment

Biodegradable plastics are not marketed as a means to reducing the amount of litter that ends up in the environment and in our seas Position of the European Bioplastics Association is very clear on that. That said, it is desirable to characterize biodegradability in this environment. Biodegradable products can be very interesting in several applications where dispersion in the sea is very probable or unavoidable: fishing gears, aquafarming. Standardization is very dynamic at the moment: 3 new standard test methods have been published and two new projects have been started.

13 Standard test methods

Novamont has characterized the inherent biodegradability of Mater-Bi ® films using the test methods developed by ASTM and ISO .

14 Principles

Mater-Bi ® samples have been exposed to marine sediments and biodegradation followed measuring the metabolism of marine microbes fed with the plastic Plastics + O2 CO2 + H2O + biomass

15 % Mineralization

Biodegradation of test materials resulted to be higher than 90% (absolute or relative to the reference material) in less than1 year testing

16

The biodegradation results have been verified by Certiquality within the pilot programme "Environmental Technology Verification (ETV). More information on this verification tool for environmental technologies can be found at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ecoap/etv_en

ETV

17

18 Risk assessment

How can we interpret these promising results?

The environmental risk depends on the concentration of the «stressor» and on its residence time in the environment.

Biodegradability reduces the residence time thus reducing the risk.

19 Conclusions:

On one hand, the idea of solving the problem of littering by substituting traditional plastics with biodegradable plastics is unfounded. Any product discarded into the sea is a potential “stressor”.

On the other hand, the impact of applications where environmental release is probable or unavoidable can be decreased by biodegradability, because the shorter residence time reduces the risk. For instance: ALDFG -abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gears

The biodegradable materials are therefore very promising for applications such as aquaculture (e.g. mussels) where the release of plastics is very probable.

20 Mussels aquafarming

21

STANDARD:

http://www.iso.org/iso/home/store/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=63515

http://www.iso.org/iso/home/store/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=66003

http://www.astm.org/Standards/D7991.htm

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2012.00225/abstract

PROJECTS

http://www.biobasedeconomy.eu/research/open-bio/

Thanks for your attention