Brasil Pack Trends 2020

BrasilPackTrends2020 80 package trends • Sustainability: weight reduction - lightweighting - by improvement of the properties and improve of the biopolymers limiting properties. The challenges related to nanotechnology associated with package are: lack of environmental and regulatory aspects of food safety that approach this Biopolymers technology under development; concern of consumers subjected to campaigns of environmental groups; high development and production costs; and longer time between research and commercialization. FIGURE 3.8 Examples of nanotechnology applications in package PLASMAX technology SiO x inner coating Violation indicator Photo: reproduction One of the most significant trends in the package area is sustainability, which caused great impact on the development of materials from renewable sources. Biopolymers, defined by the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards as polymers or copolymers from renewable sources (ABNT NBR 15448-1, 2008) can be from natural origin, or synthesized from raw materials from renewable sources, or produced by microorganisms. Given the lack of infrastructure in industrial composting plants, the tendency is to grow the recyclable biopolymers market, such as the “Green” polyethylene from Braskem and Plant-Bottle from Coca- cola, with advantages such as conservation of energy and raw materials and saving natural resources. The challenges of new materials are: overcoming the limitations in the properties, especially for use in food packages; increase availability; improve competitiveness with polymers from lower cost fossil source; and solve environmental issues, such as the negative impact on the recycling chain of other materials and the emission of greenhouse gases, in the case of biodegradable material that is not designed for industrial composting plants. The future is in the manufacture of package materials from waste/byproducts from industries of food chain, from the timber industry and from biofuels production.