UPM Biofore Magazine 1-2019

In 2016, for the first time ever, a larger amount of plastic was recycled than taken to landfills. In 2017, 42% of plastic was incinerated for energy, 31% was recycled, and 27% taken to landfills.

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“Biodegradability is not the only feature we need. It’s great in applications such as agriculture and health technologies, but it doesn’t solve the littering problem,” Kärhä points out. Kärhä praises renewable plastics as a good solution. They can be seamlessly woven into existing processes, which means there is a low threshold for their implementation. “BioVerno and similar rawmaterials promote responsible plastic usage in a clever way. These solutions produce ‘normal’ plastic, bio-based polyethylene, which requires no changes to existing packaging solutions or food laws. It’s exactly the same rawmaterial, only made without natural gas or oil. This is a key milestone on the road to responsible plastic production,” says Kärhä. Life without packaging? Single-use plastic products such as food packaging are needed to preserve products. Poorly designed packaging is a huge waste of resources, but food waste, too, is a significant source of CO 2 emissions. The global population is predicted to increase to 10 billion by 2050, which creates additional pressure for resource efficiency in food production and packaging. “It’s vital that all the food we produce really ends up being eaten, but this issue will be even more critical in future. Unfortunately, food isn’t produced in major population centres. It has to be shipped to where the people are: in big cities. This is why we need packaging,”

14 | UPM BIOFORE BEYOND FOSSILS