Around 300 million tons of plastic is made from fossil fuels every year and is said to be a major contributor to the climate crisis. And, because most of it isn’t recycled, it also is part of the microplatic mess in the world’s oceans.
Now a Dutch firm says it has developed a plant-based bottle. And it has some heavy hitters committed to it, including Carlsberg, Coca-Cola and Danone.
Avantium Renewable Polymers’s YXY plants-to-plastics technology catalytically converts plant-based sugars into FDCA (furandicarboxylic acid) and materials such as the new plant-based packaging material PEF (polyethylene furanoate).
Avantium says PEF is a 100% plant-based, 100% recyclable plastic with superior performance properties compared to today’s widely used petroleum-based packaging materials.
The company says PEF’s oxygen barrier is 10 times better that PET, its carbon dioxide barrier is six to 10 times better than PET and its water barrier is twice as good as PET.
Avantium says the resulting packaging can replace PET, glass or aluminum in typical applications like bottles for soft drinks, water, alcoholic beverages and fruit juices.
“PEF is designed for recycling and reusing and therefore it fits perfectly in a circular economy. PEF has a proven fit with existing sorting and recycling facilities. Recycling for PEF is very similar to PET recycling and trials have shown that the existing recycling systems are compatible to PEF, so no systems need to be developed. In addition, PEF can easily be distinguished and sorted from PET and other plastics using optical sorting systems used today.”