In recent year, there has been increasing concern about the growing amount of plastic waste coming from daily life. Different kinds of synthetic plastics are currently used for an extensive range of needs, but in order to reduce the impact of petroleum-based plastics and material waste, considerable attention has been focused on “green” plastics. In this paper, we present a broad review on the advances in the research and development of bio-based polymers analogous to petroleum-derived ones. The main interest for the development of bio-based materials is the strong public concern about waste, pollution and carbon footprint. The sustainability of those polymers, for general and specific applications, is driven by the great progress in the processing technologies that refine biomass feedstocks in order to obtain bio-based monomers that are used as building blocks. At the same time, thanks to the industrial progress, it is possible to obtain more versatile and specific chemical structures in order to synthetize polymers with ad-hoc tailored properties and functionalities, with engineering applications that include packaging but also durable and electronic goods. In particular, three types of polymers were described in this review: Bio-polyethylene (Bio-PE), bio-polypropylene (Bio-PP) and Bio-poly(ethylene terephthalate) (Bio-PET). The recent advances in their development in terms of processing technologies, product development and applications, as well as their advantages and disadvantages, are reported.

The use of polymer materials in food packaging field is one of the largest growing market area. Actually the optimization behaviour of packaging permeability is of crucial importance, in order to extend the food shelf-life and to reach the best engineering solution. Studying the permeability characterization of the different polymer material (homogeneous and heterogeneous polymer system) to the different packaging gases, in different environmental condition, is crucial to understand if the selected material is adapted to the chosen food contact field. Temperature and humidity parameters are of crucial importance for food quality preservation, especially in real life situations, like food market, and house long-life use. The aim of this report was to collect information about the state of the art on the permeability characteristics of the polymer packages used on food field.

Over the last ten years, the demand of biodegradable polymers has grown at an annual rate of 20–30%. However, the market share is about less than 0.1% of the total plastic production due to their lower performances, higher price and limited legislative attention in respect to the standard materials. The biodegradability as a functional added property is often not completely perceived from the final consumers. However, the opportunity to use renewable resources and to reduce the dependency from petroleum resources could become an incentive to accelerate their future growth. Renewable raw materials, coming from industrial wastes such as oilseed crops, starch from cereals and potatoes, cellulose from straw and wood, etc., can be converted into chemical intermediates and polymers, in order to substitute fossil fuel feedstock. The introduction of these new products could represent a significant contribution to sustainable development. However, the use of renewable resources and the production of the bioplastics are no longer a guarantee for a minimal environmental impact. The production process as well as their technical performances and their ultimate disposal has to be carefully considered. Bioplastics are generally biodegradable, but the diffusion of the composting technology is a prerequisite for their development. Efforts are required at industry level in order to develop less expensive and high performance products, with minimal environmental impact technologies.

Edible films and coatings gained renewed interest in the food packaging sector with polysaccharide and protein blending being explored as a promising strategy to improve properties of edible films. The present work studies composite edible films in different proportions of pectin (P), alginate (A) and whey Protein concentrate (WP) formulated with a simplex centroid mixture design and evaluated for physico-chemical characteristics to understand the effects of individual components on the final film performance. The studied matrices exhibited good film forming capacity, except for whey protein at a certain concentration, with thickness, elastic and optical properties correlated to the initial solution viscosity. A whey protein component in general lowered the viscosity of the initial solutions compared to that of alginate or pectin solutions. Subsequently, a whey protein component lowered the mechanical strength, as well as the affinity for water, as evidenced from an increasing contact angle. The effect of pectin was reflected in the yellowness index, whereas alginate and whey protein affected the opacity of film. Whey protein favored higher opacity, lower gas barrier values and dense structures, resulting from the polysaccharide-protein aggregates. All films displayed however good thermal stability, with degradation onset temperatures higher than 170 °C.