Polymers are the marvelous invention of the last century. The way they have cast an impact on us and transformed our lives is unprecedented. Polymers are everywhere and life without them is unthinkable. However, they are produced in such huge quantities that they have overwhelmed the world’s ability to deal with the pollution they have already created. In the future, their production will further accelerate owing to their lightweight and barrier properties. Among different polymers, the packaging grade polymers represent the commodity plastics that are produced in huge quantities and cause more pollution due to their single-use and throw-away culture, representing the dark side of the human mentality. Fortunately, all the packaging grades of polymer belong to the thermoplastics and are 100 % recyclable. Moreover, these synthetic polymers can be replaced with biobased polymers, meaning less carbon footprint. Some of them have already attained commercial success and others are in pipeline.

In this webinar, we will focus on the recycling challenges of polymers in general and packaging-grade polymers in particular. We will also focus on mimicking synthetic polymer structures with biobased sources.