Brasil Pack Trends 2020

BrasilPackTrends2020 167 qual ity and new technologies which assure biodegradability, fast compostability and formation of non-toxic substances. Certification systems established by the Biodegradable Products Institute – BPI, DIN/CERTCO and other institutions validate the performance of biodegradable materials. According to the PMMI (PACKAGING..., 2011) trends report 2011, “even though the concept of compostable and/or biodegradable material has much appeal, currently a very little package material is really composted. There is not a significant composting infrastructure spread over the United States. In Europe, the European Union’s Landfill directive restricted the biodegradable waste landfill. As a result, some European countries have a well-established infrastructure of composting and other does not. In Japan, a 2001 law, the Food Recycling Law, helped the increase of composting plants and composting rates”. In Brazil, in 2008, the composting corresponded to 0.8% of the collected waste allotting (IBGE, 2010), which is inexpressive, but with the institution of the National Policy of Solid Waste, it is expected a growth of the composting plants. Biopolymers can be organically formed in the nature by living organisms (agropolymers) or to be chemically synthesized from renewable sources. The production of biopolymer can be via polymerization of natural molecules or chemical modification of a natural polymer. The agropolymers are a vegetable or animal source biopolymer, obtained straight from the biomass. Usually they are derived from starch (corn, potato, wheat), cellulose, proteins (whey, soya) and from lipidicmaterials (triglycerides). The chitosan is a natural modified biopolymer (carbohydrate), obtained from chitin, which is a biopolymer present on crustaceans carapace, but it can also be found on some fungi and yeasts. Chitin and chitosan are highly available biopolymers and their structures allow uncountable modification possibilities, functionalities and applications. It has to be stuck out that the biopolymers derived from polysaccharides (starch) have received a lot of attention due to its compostability, good barrier to gases and versatility. They can be used in starch blends or mixed with cellulose, compostable polyesters, lignin, pectin, protein or transformed into nanocomposites. However, its high sensitivity to humidity has limited its applications, which is very relevant in a tropical country like Brazil, with a high environmental humidity. The agropolymers can also be produced by biotechnology, which means by algae and bacteria that ferment sugars and produce polyesters (as the family of polyhydroxyalkanoates – PHA), or by acid fermentation that generates lactic acid, that is lately esterified and polymerized at polyacid lactic – PLA. Algae and bacteria can also be used to generate raw material for biopolymer production. Genetically modified plants have been developed to incorporate enzymes used by bacteria in the organic manufacturing of biopolymers. The genetic code of bacteria has been transplanted into certain plants, such as the soya, in order to produce the biopolymer at the normal cellular process. After collecting it, the biopolymer is extracted from the plant with a solvent. Since it has been tried to improve the sustainable profile of the agroplymers, efforts in research have been aimed at the production of those materials from food and beverages industry residues, agriculture residues, and logging residues (cellulose and lignin). The issue of the use of renewable source energy is also a relevant requirement to reduce the environmental impact of biopolymers when comparing to the conventional process at the petrochemistries. Cellulose is an organic polysaccharide composed of long glucose chains. It is usually present in plants and can be produced by some bacteria. It is the basic raw material for manufacturing paper, cardboard, corrugated paperboard, cellophane and cellulose acetate. They can be chemically modified in aquasoluble polymer, compatible with starch and gums. The nanoparticles can be obtained from biopolymers as whiskers, starch, proteins and chitin. Chitosan nanoparticles can be used as vehicles of specific compounds in active packages, besides its antimicrobial property. On the other side, other inorganic nanoparticles can be incorporated in biopolymers to improve its properties.