2020/5/20 10:47:00 Source: CPRJ plastic rubber
Avantium, a Dutch company, has recently launched a new innovation project: to create a bottle using plant-based sugar instead of fossil fuels.
The project has received support from Carlsberg, Coca-Cola, and Danone.
Avantium CEO Tom VanAken hopes to see major investment into the project by end of the year. Despite the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown, the project nevertheless moves forward. In late summer, cooperation progress with other food and beverage companies will be shared.
Statistics show about 300 million tons of bottles are made of fossil fuels in the world on an annual basis. Most of the bottles cannot be recycled, thus creating increasing amounts of tiny plastic particles in the oceans that can only degrade in a long process over several centuries.
Composting equipment accelerates the degradation process to within a year.
Avantium’s plan-based plastics demonstrates enough resilience as a container for carbonated drinks. Tests show that the plant-based plastics can be put to a composting equipment and degrade within a year. Without using such equipment, under normal outdor conditions, the plant-based plastics can degrade in several years. According to Tom VanAken, the plant-based plastics can be recycled under ideal conditions.
“The plant-based plastics offers very good sustainability. Without the use of fossil fuels, it can be recycled and degrades much faster in nature than other types of plastics.,” added Tom VanAken.
The bio-refinery plans to break down sustainable plant sugars into simple chemical structures that can then be rearranged to form a new plant-based plastic – which could appear on supermarket shelves by 2023.
The path-finder project will initially make a modest 5,000 tonnes of plastic every year using sugars from corn, wheat or beets. However, Avantium expects its production to grow as demand for renewable plastics climbs.
In time, Avantium plans to use plant sugars from sustainable sourced biowaste so that the rise of plant plastic does not affect the global food supply chain.
