While I've fortunately passed the phase in my life where I experience feelings of 'guilt' when eating fat-laden, sugary or greasy fast food, I do still feel some sense of shame about its impact on the environment. The various wrappings, boxes, bags, straws and packaging get a one-way ticket to landfill, carrying a bigger carbon footprint than a homemade meal.
However, new advances in biomaterials could see packaging waste become a thing of the past, with researchers and pioneering German biomaterials developer one*five (pronounced 'one point five') using seaweed extracts to develop biopolymer coating materials that could be a gamechanger for the fast-food industry.
The new non-pollutive biomaterials are designed to replace conventional fossil-based plastic coatings used in grease-resistant fast-food packaging. Grease-resistant paper is typically coated with plastic and other environmentally harmful chemicals, such as polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs); but the new prototype coating is said to meet the functional requirements of conventional grease-resistant packaging materials while also presenting an environmentally circular solution.
The result represents a 'landmark achievement' in creating next-generation sustainable and ecologically responsible biopolymers, according to one*five co-founder Claire Gusko.
"We are able to reduce harmful plastic pollution with this product, and we are also using feedstock that is environmentally regenerative," Gusko said.
"Seaweed cultivation helps to naturally rehabilitate marine environments, reduce greenhouse gases, and mitigate coastal erosion. It's important for us to use sustainable inputs upstream to ensure our products are environmentally safe, from cradle to grave."
This development - which took extracts from certain seaweeds, added modifications and formed degradable bioplastic films - has been led by Dr Zhongfan Jia, a lead researcher from the Flinders Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology in Australia and research colleague Mr Peng Su, in association with the Flinders Centre for Marine Bioproducts Development.
"The seaweed extracts have a similar structure to the natural fibres from which paper is made," Dr Jia explained.
"Our novel specialist treatments boost the grease-resistance feature of the seaweed via simple modifications while not affecting biodegradability nor recyclability of the coated paper."
The plant-based material, or biomass, for the new coating formulation is made from natural polymers extracted from seaweeds that are native to the South Australian coastline, which provided a key reason why the Flinders University researchers studied it for more broad scientific application. These extracts are transformed through processing to produce functional biopolymer sheets that can be cut or coated onto various surfaces, depending on the application.
Flinders University and one*fıve are now working towards transferring laboratory-scale processing to produce volumes of the natural polymer coating.
This initiative aims to have a transformative impact on the global packaging and plastics industry by significantly reducing reliance on highly pollutive conventional plastic.
