Environment

Compared to the current flexible food wrappings made from fossil-based OPP, Solanyl presents a number of environmental advantages:

• Whereas the current OPP production requires about three tons of oil for the production of one ton of OPP, Solanyl is made from renewable resources. Therefore, for every ton of OPP that can be substituted with Solanyl, three tons of crude oil can be saved.
• In contrast to first generation biopolymers, Solanyl is produced from waste materials and not from virgin plant material that could cause competition with food crops. In fact, for the production of one kg Solanyl, about 350g of potato starch from the waste stream of the French fries production and about 400g of PLA re-granulate from the waste stream of sheet extruders are recycled. In total, Solanyl consists of 75% waste materials.
• The production process of the Solanyl material from cradle (waste stream/crude oil) to factory door (sale to sheet extruder) requires about one third less energy than the production of OPP. Whereas the production of Solanyl requires about 20 MJ/kg, the energy consumption during the production of OPP is around 30,9 MJ/kg. The energy consumption during the later stages of the process (extrusion, stretching and packaging) is similar for Solanyl and OPP with potentially some small additional savings, as Solanyl is extruded at lower temperatures than OPP. During the market introduction of the material in the frame of this Eco Innovation project, about 27 tons of material will be produced. This results in energy savings of 81,750 kWh and corresponding CO₂ savings of 45.91 tons. Two years after the project, at an expected production volume of 2000 tons per year, these savings will have increased to more than 6 million kWh and 3,400.80 tons of CO₂ emissions annually.
• Solanyl is fully bio-degradable. Not only the main constituents thermoplastic starch and PLA are of natural origin and fully biodegradable, also all additives required to achieve the desired properties of the material need to be of natural origin and have to be either fully biodegradable or may not negatively affect biodegradability.
• Moreover, compared to other biopolymers that only break-down in industrial composting facilities, Solanyl degrades at ambient conditions. This leads to a number of advantages during disposal. At the moment about 22% of plastics are recycled in Europe (the rest going to landfill or being incinerated). Virtually no biopolymers find their way into the industrial composting facilities they actually require. Instead when disposed of with oil-based plastics, these biopolymers often lead to a contamination of the recycling stream of the otherwise pure plastics such as PE, PP, PET etc. When, in comparison, Solanyl enters the recycling stream, it will have been fully degraded before the oil-based plastic materials are reused and therefore cause no contamination in the recycling stream. The very good biodegradability of Solanyl moreover entails that when illegally thrown into the surroundings the packaging material will break off and prevent an additional environmental burden.
• Last but not least, when placed in a bioreactor, Solanyl can be used as substrate for the production of methane (biogas). Whereas, it is unlikely that a system, which allows the targeted collection of Solanyl for the production of biogas will be implemented in households any time soon, this option could nevertheless be very interesting for by the date food products that are usually returned to the manufacturer. At the moment these food products have to be unwrapped before they can be used for biogas production. In a Solanyl wrapper, the food products could be directly placed in the bioreactor, saving the labor-intensive unwrapping step in the process chain.
• End-of-life aspect of LCA: Upon finalizing the development phase, an LCA has been performed on the basic Solanyl product. It should be noted, however, that the precise recipe of the Solanyl that will be applied in the 2GFlexWrap project may differ slightly from the tested compound.

The LCA that was performed in the past tested inter alia the environmental effects of production and waste processing of Solanyl relative to polyethylene. The table below gives an overview of key data that was collected by Mr. Martin Patel (University of Utrecht, the Netherlands):

It should be pointed out that “waste processing” of Solanyl refers to its composting. Solanyl’s impact on plastic recycling processes has also been investigated. Tests have shown, that Solanyl will typically have composted before it has even entered the recycling process. It therefore has a negligible impact on the plastics waste recycling stream.