March 8, 2011

Biopolymers – The Good, The Bad, and The Symposium…

by Environmental Building Strategies in Energy 434 Comments

With the 2009 Biopolymer Symposium Event in Chicago around the corner in September, it is important we address the impact these technologies have on our global quest to achieve sustainability.

For a friendly reminder, sustainability is defined as, “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability for future generations to meet their own needs.”

Biopolymers play an important role in this quest. That is because biopolymers are renewable, sustainable, and can be carbon neutral.

Biopolymers (also called renewable polymers) are produced from biomass for use in the packaging industry. Biomass comes from crops such as sugar beet, potatoes or wheat: when used to produce biopolymers, these are classified as non food crops.

In terms of biomass, biopolymers can be converted using the following process

Biomass > (fermentation) > Bioethanol > Ethene > Polyethylene

Many types of packaging ca