Eco-innovative solutions for the food industry

Food industry packaging made from biopolymers and recyclable materials, reduces dependence on fossil sources, such as oil, while concurrently reducing the environmental impact. This is an option to make industries profitable and achieve a more sustainable production, says Gustavo Copelmayer.

The food industry  and the environment, both benefit from the development of biodegradable packaging made from materials that can easily degrade in landfills. Biodegradable packaging is produced using biopolymers, which are molecules often found in living organisms, such as cellulose and proteins. This means, explains Gustavo Copelmayer, that they can be safely consumed, quickly degrade and often be produced from plant waste products.

Without a doubt, the most used material for food packaging is plastic, because it is easy to manufacture, but it carries a series of environmental consequences such as long rates of decomposition and damage to natural ecosystems. In recent years, non-plastic biodegradable packaging and films have begun to be integrated as an alternative to standard plastic packaging, Gustavo Copelmayer concludes.

“Man is not only a problem for himself, but also for the biosphere in which he has had to live.”

Ramón Margalef (1919-2004), the first professor of Ecology in Spain.

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