In the latest podcast, we talk to Carmen Michels from FKuR. She has been researching bio-based and biodegradable plastics for 30 years.
On the way to a more sustainable use of resources and alternatives to fossil raw materials, bioplastics are playing an increasingly important role in the world of packaging. However, not all questions and challenges have been solved yet, as a look at the topic of recycling shows. FKuR has been researching bio-based and biodegradable plastics for 30 years. For the latest episode of packaging people, the podcast from packaging journal and interpack, we spoke to Carmen Michels, authorised signatory at FKuR.
Episode 7: „Nature is actually the best recycler“
Carmen Michels' career path led her from FKuR to Fraunhofer UMSICHT and back again. Bioplastics have therefore been a topic that she has been working on for a long time and she is familiar with the associated opportunities and challenges. One of these challenges is the issue of recycling:
As always in life, there is no single answer. We first need to differentiate between the types of bioplastics we are talking about. If we are talking about bio-based drop-in solutions, then they can be seamlessly integrated into existing recycling streams. We are talking about polyethylene, which is obtained from renewable raw materials. This is chemically identical and can be integrated into the recycling cycle just like any other material. When we talk about compostable plastics, we have to make it very clear that they are not originally intended to be mechanically recycled. Instead, these products should be channelled into the organic recycling loop
The materials that FKuR works with come largely from nature and are renewable raw materials. The company offers a wide range of granulates and compounds made from bioplastics. The model is nature and the cycles that can be found there.
Nature is actually the best recycler, so we started looking at biodegradable plastics. And this is of course very helpful when it comes to packaging, because even in nature there is packaging, if we imagine a banana, for example. It is also packaged, it is biodegradable and packaged with a renewable raw material. A banana is informative, it looks nice, but the skin also protects.
packaging people, the podcast from packaging journal and interpack will be published from August onwards once a month. It can be accessed via all known podcast portals, such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer or Google Podcasts and subscribed to. It is also available on the online pages of packaging journal and interpack.