Biodegradable Dairy Bags and Bottles

August 3st, 2016

AIMPLAS has completed the investigations that have made possible the development of new biopolymers from which new ones can be manufactured biodegradable bottles, bags and caps resistant to sterilization and pasteurization, so that they can contain products dairy like fresh milk, smoothies and yogurts with probiotics.

This is the BIOBOTTLE project, developed within the Seventh Framework Program of the European Union and which has been coordinated by AIMPLAS. With a budget of one million euros, seven companies and technology centers from five different countries have participated in it: the German VLB, the Belgian OWS, the Italian CNR, the Portuguese VIZELPAS and ESPAÇOPLAS, and the Spanish ALMUPLAS (Almussafes) and ALJUAN (Ibi).

The objective of the project was to ensure that the new biodegradable containers, manufactured with the biopolymers developed in the project, meet the mechanical and thermal requirements required for these applications and that they pass the microbiological analysis without affecting the organoleptic properties of the product. The result has been monolayer bottles and caps and multilayer bags capable of withstanding temperatures of up to 95 degrees Celsius.

Through a reactive extrusion process, it has been possible to modify existing commercial materials in such a way that they meet all these expectations and are processable using conventional methods to obtain the different packaging formats.

From the new biopolymers developed, which have also passed the composting tests carried out, the packaging for dairy products described above will be obtained. These containers, even with the current prices of biodegradable materials, increase the final cost of the product packed and located on the shelf by less than 10%.

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