Can Cellulose Film Make Food Packaging Sustainable Again?

The plastic waste crisis is often typified by images of plastic bottles, floating in the ocean.

The tsunami of thrown-away items in our waterways is a massive problem, but the plastic waste issue is far bigger than that. It permeates our lives in ways few of us probably appreciate.

One of the areas that often gets overlooked is food wrapping and packaging.

In November, a report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and UN Environment Programme on the New Plastics Global Economy Commitment, warned its 2025 goal of 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable plastic packaging was becoming unattainable.

Speaking at the time, the Foundation’s plastic lead, Sander Defruyt, said one of the main drivers for this was a lack of flexible packaging.

He told Forbes there still was not a “credible road map” for dealing with anything that comes in a bag or a wrapper, like food.

This includes see-through plastic film, which has been used in global food packaging for decades to protect food and minimise waste.

However, such films are difficult to recycle because they are made of multiple plastic layers, making them difficult to separate.

Cellulose is the main substance in the walls of plant cells, helping plants to remain stiff and upright.

Professor Ali Harlin at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland said the process of dissolving cellulose and converting it into transparent sheets is not new and dates back to the early 20^th century.

In fact, he explained it was originally a major ingredient in Cellophane wrapping, hence the name.

But from the 1940s onwards, many modern food wrappings started to use plastic polymers – like polypropylene – instead.

He added the polypropylene film market is expected to grow by $16 billion by 2035.

“We created the problem of microplastics and now we have to get rid of it,” Professor Harlin told Forbes in an interview.

Today (29 March) VTT has announced it has invested €1.5 million into a CelluloseFilms pilot facility, which is ready to scale up the production methods of renewable cellulose alternatives to plastic films.

Their scientists have developed a new material, which is designed to replace the plastic film used in most modern food packaging.

The investment will allow the plant to begin testing and developing processes that enable the mass production of these films for the packaging industry.

“The world is well over-due for an alternative,” added Harlin. “We’re very excited to create new processes to produce plastic film alternatives.”

He added microbes “love” cellulose molecules and naturally digest them in the same way that they can digest paper and other biodegradable substances.

The pilot’s focus will be on improving the barrier properties, manufacturing films for packages from the materials, and the commercial utilization of the material solutions in emerging value chains.

Professor Harlin said the packaging material could be in extensive industrial use in five years.

VTT is already working with over 30 Finnish and international companies that are interested in the next generation of sustainable film solutions.

And so far, he said, the feedback from VTT’s customers is that they cannot tell the difference between the cellulose film they have developed and traditional plastic wraps.

“The new facility is a step forwards in making sustainable materials more mainstream in an industry heavily reliant on packaging materials,” he said.

In August 2022, VTT scientists claimed they had developed a new process, which could convert most of the world’s waste plastics back to usable virgin grade materials an infinite number of times.

In other news, a spin-out company from the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland – Carbonaide – has raised €1.8 million in seed funding led by Lakan Betoni and Vantaa Energy.

The round was completed with public loans and in-kind contributions from Business Finland and other Finnish concrete companies and strategic investors.

Carbonaide is building the world’s first industrial pilot production line that can make carbon-negative concrete.

The company’s CEO Tapio Behmas said in a statement its aim is to create “a more sustainable future” with cutting-edge tech that cuts the carbon emissions of materials like concrete and “traps more CO2 than they emit throughout their lifetime”.