Australian biomaterials company Great Wrap has created a compostable bioplastic alternative to clingfilm that is made from waste potatoes.
As Alice Finney reports for Dezeen, Great Wrap film consists of starch extracted from potato peels mixed with other ingredients including used cooking oil and a starchy root vegetable called cassava. The transparent packaging, which comes in colourful recycled-plastic dispensers, has similar textural and performance qualities to petroleum-based plastic clingfilm, the company claims.
“The starch is extracted from the waste and then plasticised with a bio-based product,” explained Great Wrap’s co-founder and co-CEO Julia Kay.
“The thermoplastic starch (TPS) is then compounded with used cooking oil, cassava and biopolymer additives to change the polymer structure so that it is suitable for stretch film,” Kay added. “We then heat the compounded pellets to melting temperature and extrude a stretch film.”
When the Great Wrap has reached the end of its life, Kay says it can be composted in landfills or home composting systems, where tests have certified it will break down within 180 days.
Source: Dezeen. Read the full article here
Photo: Credit Shelley Horan.
