New plant-based containers that degrade in a year could soon replace plastic bottles

‘This plastic has very attractive sustainability credentials: uses no fossil fuels, can be recycled and degrades in nature much faster than normal plastics do.’

Dutch biochemical company Avantium is busy developing plastic made from plant sugars rather than fossil fuels and has been backed by beverages giants Coca-Cola, Carlsberg and The Absolut Company, and L’Oreal among others.

Last October, Avantium became part of a pioneering project by the Paper Bottle Company- Paboco, aiming to develop sustainable plastic bottles that completely decompose within one year.

Paboco is a joint venture between Danish packaging material developer BillerudKorsnäs and Austrian bottle manufacturing specialist Alpla.

Avantium is providing its ‘PEF’ (polyethylene furanoate) a 100% plant-based, 100% recyclable polymer with superior barrier and thermal properties to commercial PEF.

The sustainable material will form a protective and recyclable lining inside of cardboard bottles and the company is further developing its plant plastic to not only make it strong enough to hold carbonated liquids and other beverages but also decompose completely after use.

Initial trials have shown that the plant plastic decomposes in one year using a composter and takes about three years if left under normal outdoor conditions.

“This plastic has very attractive sustainability credentials because it uses no fossil fuels, and can be recycled – but would also degrade in nature much faster than normal plastics do,”  said Tom van Aken, Avantium’s chief executive to The Guardian.

Avantium is aiming to bring these innovative sustainable bottles on the shelves by 2023.

While, it will only make 5, 000 tonnes of plant-plastic annually using sugar from corn, wheat and beets.  It is anticipating an increase in demand and is also set to reveal partnerships with other food and drink companies later in the summer.

The innovative plant plastic project  will be a major step in tackling  environmental pollution and the climate crisis as currently around 300 million tonnes of plastic is made from fossil fuels every year globally, a majority of which ends up in landfills  and oceans as these are not recycled and take up to hundreds of years to decompose.

• Read: Adidas recycles 1.8 million plastic bottles to make Miami’s first sustainable football field

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