Plastmasa – cik fantastiska tā patiesībā ir?
This week our researcher Dr.chem. Kristīne Meile took part in the BALTIPLAST project workshop “Young Researchers for a Plastic Free Baltic Sea Region”, organized by Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg) and the Baltic University Program.
Kristīne gave a presentation “Putting ‘bio’ in plastics”, in which she explored the topic of bioplastics and structured her talk around the lifecycle of a manufactured material:
Feedstocks. Renewable and sustainably sourced biomass as the basis for bioplastics.
Production phase. Various technologies have been developed to produce bioplastics, and several companies already offer them on the market.
Use phase. Bioplastics are increasingly entering the packaging sector, which is the largest application area for plastics in general.
End-of-life. Biodegradability makes sense from a technological perspective, but outside laboratories there is still considerable uncertainty.
In conclusion, Kristīne introduced several research directions of the Latvian State Institute of Wood Chemistry dedicated to tackling the plastic crisis.
The discussions highlighted two key conclusions:
Regulators, communicators and implementers (e.g. municipalities) need to take technological development into account so that bioplastics can fully realize their potential.
Adding “bio” to the narrative does not exempt us from responsibility.
