Environmental impacts and consumer concerns have necessitated the study of bio-based materials as alternatives to petrochemicals for packaging applications. The purpose of this review is to summarize synthetic and non-synthetic materials feasible for packaging and textile applications, routes of upscaling, (industrial) applications, evaluation of sustainability, and end-of-life options. The outlined bio-based materials include polylactic acid, polyethylene furanoate, polybutylene succinate, and non-synthetically produced polymers such as polyhydrodyalkanoate, cellulose, starch, proteins, lipids, and waxes. Further emphasis is placed on modification techniques (coating and surface modification), biocomposites, multilayers, and additives used to adjust properties especially for barriers to gas and moisture and to tune their biodegradability. Overall, this review provides a holistic view of bio-based packaging material including processing, and an evaluation of the sustainability of and options for recycling. Thus, this review contributes to increasing the knowledge of available sustainable bio-based packaging material and enhancing the transfer of scientific results into applications.

The depletion of fossil resources and the growing demand for plastic waste reduction has put industries and academic researchers under pressure to develop increasingly sustainable packaging solutions that are both functional and circularly designed. In this review, we provide an overview of the fundamentals and recent advances in biobased packaging materials, including new materials and techniques for their modification as well as their end-of-life scenarios. We also discuss the composition and modification of biobased films and multilayer structures, with particular attention to readily available drop-in solutions, as well as coating techniques. Moreover, we discuss end-of-life factors, including sorting systems, detection methods, composting options, and recycling and upcycling possibilities. Finally, regulatory aspects are pointed out for each application scenario and end-of-life option. Moreover, we discuss the human factor in terms of consumer perception and acceptance of upcycling.

Biobased plastics are fully or partially made from biological resources but are not necessarily biodegradable or compostable. Poly (lactic acid) (PLA), one of the most diffused bioplastics, is compostable in industrial environments, but improving degradation in home composting conditions, in soil and in seawater could be beneficial for improving its end of life and general degradability. Blends obtained by the extrusion of PLA with different amounts of poly (butylene succinate-co-adipate) (PBSA) or poly (caprolactone) (PCL) were characterized in terms of their home composting, soil, marine and freshwater biodegradation. The blending strategy was found to be successful in improving the home compostability and soil compostability of PLA. Thanks to the correlations with morphological characterization as determined by electron microscopy, it was possible to show that attaining an almost co-continuous phase distribution, depending on the composition and melt viscosity of the blend components, can enhance PLA degradation in home composting conditions. Tests in marine and freshwater were also performed, and the obtained results showed that in marine conditions, pure PLA is degradable. A comparison of different tests evidenced that salt dissolved in marine water plays an important role in favoring PLA’s degradability.

Feather waste is a major issue from an economic and environmental point of view. Even though there are already routes for the valorisation of feathers into fertilisers and feather meal, these are considered to have low added value. For more attractive applications, for example in agricultural biodegradable plastics, higher and faster degradability in soil is required. To face this challenge alternative approaches to accelerate biodegradation and disintegration processes are needed. In this context, steam explosion appears as an effective technology to modify the structure of feather and improve its soil degradability. In this work, chicken feathers were treated by steam explosion and the effect of treatment on their structure and physico-chemical and thermal properties were evaluated. Finally, the effect of the process conditions on the disintegration and biodegradation in soil of feathers was also investigated, finding an increased degradation in soil of steam explosion treated feathers. These results open up the possibilities of using feather waste as a component for environmentally friendly agricultural bioplastics that can be degraded in-situ in soil.

The use of bioplastic mulch in agriculture has increased dramatically in the last years throughout the world. Nowadays, biodegradable materials for mulching films strive to constitute a reliable and more sustainable alternative to classical materials such as polyethylene (PE). The main challenge is to improve their durability in the soil to meet the required service length for crop farming by using benign and sustainable antioxidant systems. Here, we report the design and fabrication of biodegradable materials based on polybutylene (succinate adipate) (PBSA) for mulching applications, incorporating a fully biobased polymeric antioxidant deriving from ferulic acid, which can be extracted from an industrial by-product. Poly-dihydro (ethylene ferulate) (PHEF) from ferulic acid was synthesized by a two-step polymerization process. It is characterized by improved thermal stability in comparison with ferulic acid monomer and therefore suitable for common industrial processing conditions. Different blends of PBSA and PHEF obtained by melt mixing or by reactive extrusion were prepared and analyzed to understand the effect of the presence of PHEF. The results demonstrate that PHEF, when processed by reactive extrusion, presents a remarkable antioxidant effect, even in comparison with commercial additives, preserving a high level of the mechanical properties of the PBSA matrix without affecting the biodegradable character of the blend.