The paper proposes a comprehensive and operational definition of Sustainable Food Packaging (SFP). Sustainability is a multifaceted concept, yet most SFP conversations decline it as a mere material substitution issue. The efforts of regulators, packaging producers, food companies, and consumers towards the design and adoption of SFP products are likely to fail without a common understanding of the multiple means by which food packaging contributes to sustainability. Based on an extensive literature review and the contributions of SFP innovation experts, the paper builds a Food Packaging Sustainability Framework (FPSF) that encompasses the three main dimensions of SFP, namely environmental conservation, food safety, and social value, and operationalizes them in terms of objectives and activable levers. The framework can be used as a tool to search and evaluate food packaging products, a conceptual guide for SFP design, and a narrative platform for coordinating supply chain actors, including consumers. The experimental activities applying FPSF gathered the different actors in the supply chain to jointly adopt the integrated model that distributes environmental, social, and economic benefits along the entire production chain.

Purpose: Development of PVA/cellulose fiber composite material with modulable properties, obtained through the increase of reinforcement and heat treatments in order to optimize the composite in terms of mechanical, thermal, and degradation properties. Methods: The composite was designed selecting as matrix an experimental formulation based on water-soluble, biodegradable, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), as reinforcement. Six different formulations, with increasing ratio of MCC content (from 0% to 55% w/w) in PVA, were developed and extruded by a co-rotating twin-screw extruder (TSA FSCM 21/40). Then, samples have been treated through two different thermal conditions (T1, T2) and characterized by scanning electron microscopy, tensile mechanical tests, thermogravimetric analysis, and water degradation tests to investigate, respectively, the influence of MCC ratios and heat treatment on morphological, mechanical, degradation, and thermal properties. Results: The PVA/MCC composite exhibited a good stress–strain behavior as well as a close correlation between MCC content on tensile, thermal, and degradation properties. The second part of the results includes the analysis of the effects that the thermal treatments (T1, T2) had on the composite. In fact, thermal treatments have allowed improving the thermal and water stability as well as a significant improvement in the considered mechanical parameters due to a possible crosslinking of the PVA matrix. Conclusion: The present work shows how the properties of the PVA/MCC composite can become modular with the aim of extending its range of application as a new sustainable solution in the field of consumer products.

Design can play a fundamental role in addressing the climate crisis and preserving the planet’s finite resources. Through design, it is possible to reduce the environmental impact of products and services right from concept stage. The elements that concur within a project are diverse and often have an impact on each other. The material is one of them, being able to influence the product, but also the business model, company relations, etc. To help the designer keep all these aspects under control, various methodologies and tools have been developed, among them design strategies and guidelines. To date, several authors have dealt with the topic, offering different perspectives and generating a critical mass of information, which differs in the level of depth and operability of the suggestions, often differing only in terminology rather than content. This inhomogeneity can confuse both professionals and students. This study proposes an ordered taxonomy of the different levels of detail and a unified terminology of the strategies and guidelines in the literature. To test taxonomy and systematisation, this article focuses on guidelines for material choice, resulting in a framework to guide the selection of materials with a view to sustainability.

When assessing the sustainability of a product, an ideal life cycle is considered which could include the “Use” and “End of Life” phases. Does human behaviour affect the environmental sustainability? This paper intends to propose a methodological framework for assessing sustainable behavioural scenarios. The framework will be then developed in a specific case study on Compostable Single Use Products (CSUPs), with the aim of designing the identity of compostable materials for packaging in order to guide consumers to behave in a sustainable way in CSUPs disposal phase.

The depletion of fossil resources, increasing packaging pollution, and stricter regulations require the development of sustainable alternative materials. This study presents POMOPLA², a fully bio‐based composite that enhances circularity by valorizing industrial tomato peel by‐products within a plasticized polylactic acid (PLA) matrix. A novel bio‐based and biodegradable plasticizer derived from oils was used to successfully reduce PLA brittleness, providing higher toughness (+485%) and strain at break (+177%), a lower glass transition temperature, while enhancing the compatibility of the tomato peels, used as reinforcement. The incorporation of tomato peel biomass has the potential to reduce production costs, and we showed that it can be used to modulate mechanical performance as well as aesthetics‐sensory attributes. Low percentages of tomato peels (5% w/w) maintained translucency for flexible film packaging applications, whereas higher contents (20% w/w) proved adequate mechanical properties for rigid packaging. POMOPLA² might implement a local circular economy in line with the European Circular Economy Action Plan, that is, to produce tomatoes' packaging to be potentially reintegrated into the biological cycle as compost, fostering a seamless nature‐to‐nature cycle.

Information about the paper titled "MATERIALS MATTER: AN EDUCATIONAL WORKSHOP TO DESIGN ICONS TOWARDS THE ECOLOGICAL TRANSITION" at IATED Digital Library