Together with four other partners, the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT (Oberhausen / Germany; www.umsicht.fraunhofer.de) has initiated the research project “Bio2Bottle”. The aim of the project is to develop a compound based on polylactic acid for making bottles used to package cleaning agents and fertilisers that is both biodegradable and recyclable.

The project partners are based in Germany and include cleaning agent manufacturer Cleaneroo (Berlin; www.cleaneroo.de), chemical manufacturer Unavera Chem Lab (Mittenwald; www.unavera.de), bioplastics compounder FKuR (Willich; www.fkur.com) and Fritzmeier Umwelttechnik (Großhelfendorf; www.fritzmeier-umwelttechnik.com), a service provider in the field of industrial biotechnology.

To meet the requirements of cleaning agents and fertilisers, the material must have a low water-vapour transmission rate as well as high stability and melt viscosity. The development also takes into account CO₂ and oxygen permeability as well as gamma sterilisation. In addition to these characteristics, the materials also need to be biodegradable – even outside industrial composting plants. “Bio-based polymers are modified in this process by compounding them with other components so that these requirements can be met,” explains Inna Bretz, deputy head of the UMSICHT department, Circular and Bio-Based Plastics.

Bottles made of bio-based plastics such as PLA can already be found in some commercially viable products. However, the materials that are already available are not always suitable for the intended applications because their water-vapour transmission rate is too high. For this reason, cleaning agent manufacturer Werner & Mertz (Mainz / Germany; www.werner-mertz.com), which otherwise ambitiously pursues the use of recycled material for the packaging of its products, has so far only used virgin PET in the highly concentrated cleaning products of its Professional segment (see Plasteurope.com of 08.02.2021).