SUSTAINABLE INNOVATIONS AND APPROACHES FOR TRANSITIONING TO PLASTIC-FREE LIVING

Abstract: Plastic bags are the modern symbol of the consumer waste. While plastic is a convenient material because it is cheap, versatile and helps to reduce the amount of food waste, it is also linked to the toxicity, microplastics, fossil fuels, and eventually- to the climate change. While plastics are not the sole culprits in the modern solid waste crisis, they are the most visible components.
Despite the recent increase in consumption of single use plastics caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of people who are turning towards sustainable brands continue to grow with every year. Even though packaging makes up a small part of a product’s environmental impact, it is the first thing that consumers see, and it can heavily influence their buying decisions. CGS 2020 Retail and Sustainability Survey has shown that only 27% of the customers would not factor sustainability into their buying decisions. A study released in January 2020 on global consumer trends from 19,000 consumers in 28 countries across the globe revealed that on average, 70% of “purpose-driven” shoppers pay up to 35% more for sustainable purchases. Even the luxury industry is now affected because people do not feel good anymore about things that are over-packaged. Therefore, adopting a sustainable packaging strategy makes sense on multiple levels, from reducing harm to the environment to building brand’s loyalty and to complying with the new legislation.
However, eliminating all plastic packaging in the food industry would lead to a massive increase in the food waste. Unfortunately, even plant-based bioplastics that could replace conventional plastic have their shortcomings. Among them are the land and the water use to grow agricultural products for the packaging. In addition, consumers lack the knowledge on how to recycle these materials, and the recovery infrastructure are yet undeveloped and suboptimal. Therefore, the solution would be to create a new generation of sustainable biomaterials that would not only look and feel good to the touch but would also have the same properties as petrol-based plastics without having a heavy cost on the planet. They should be easily disposable/biodegradable or even compostable in the home compost.
To answer to all these requirements, what we created a range of biomaterials from waste biomass, abundant and accessible renewable natural resources. However, in some cases higher production costs, low performance, and not less important, ethical implications, still hinder the market penetration of plastics-free alternatives. Our biopolymer-based material innovations can be further made in different colours and can were source from the discarded shrimp shells, algae and fruit waste (vegan/cruelty-free option). With few added modifications, we have shown that our innovative biomaterials used as packaging can increase the shelf life of the products, could be disposed as zero-waste after its usage or being reused in several cycles thus minimizing the amount of waste sent to the landfill while not harming the environment.