Brasil Pack Trends 2020

BrasilPackTrends2020 166 qual ity and new technologies One concern is that the competitiveness of bioplastics would be affected by the pricing increase of the agriculture products. Another concern is that the cultures for bioplastics production would cause a pricing increase and impacts on the food supply (BARNETT, 2011b). In Brazil, the Brazilian Technical Standards Association (ABNT) defines biopolymer as “polymer or copolymer produced from renewable source raw material” (ABNT NBR 15448-1, 2008). In some countries, the definition of biopolymer is still under debate and can include, besides renewable source materials, even though they are not compostable, compostable materials, even though they are not from a renewable source (Figure 6.31). FIGURE 6.31 Concepts that are involved in the definition of biopolymers The biodegradation is a process in which organic substances, or similar synthetic, are degraded by microorganisms, in aerobic environments, such as composting, or anaerobic, like most of the landfills. Biodegradable materials, if correctly composted, minimize the environmental impacts, once good quality manure is produced. However, if placed in landfills, they generate methane when degraded, a 25 times more potential for greenhouse effect than CO 2 , which aggravates the environmental problem. Hence, the use of a biodegradable package demands an infrastructure of composting and requires that the product manufacturer assures that the consumer will discard it properly, to ensure revalorization (HORTON, 2008). Compostability is the complete biological degradation of biodegradable material, until the formation of carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds and biomass, with no toxic waste. To be certified as compostable biodegradable material, a biopolymer should meet some standards, in Brazil ABNT NBR 15448-2 (2008), in USA ASTM D 6400 (2012) and in Europe EN 13432 (2000) and EN 14995 (2006). The difference between biodegradable-only and compostable plastic is important. For example, a film with less than 20μm of PLA is compostable, while thicker films are not compostable, because they do not decompose fast enough to be considered compostable (BARNETT, 2011b). The process of oxidegradation is associated to polymers of fossil source with metallic salt-based additives that catalyzes the degradation of the chemical structure, generating molecules with lower molecular mass, non-biodegradable and inorganic particles. The process is activated by the polymer exposition to some factors such as heat, UV radiation and humidity. There is no oxidegradation in landfills with no proper temperature, oxygen and light. They compromise the normal recycle chain, because they cause degradation of the recycled chemical structure and are not composted at industrial composting plants. Oxidegradable plastics are not traditionally classified as biopolymers, as they normally do not meet the ABNT NBR 15448-2 (2008), ASTM D 6400 (2012) or EN 13432 (2000) standards requirements, once they take more than 180 days to degrade at the conditions specified in the standards. Concerning the biopolymers definition there are standards that helps in the evaluation of these new materials, such as the Brazilian standard ABNT NBR 15448-2 (2008), American standard ASTM D 6400 (2012) for composting plastics, ASTM D 6868 (2011) for paper coatings and other compostable substrates and the European standards EN 13432 (2000 + AC 2005) for packages and EN 14995 (2006) for materials,