PHOTO: Instead, the Wheypack bioplastic process turns this waste into a product dairies can use. The circular economy, or closed-loop, project makes it possible for the generators of the waste, the dairy industry, to make a profit by the production of the new PHB biodegradable packaging tailored to the needs of their products
The first bioplastic made from cheese waste makes biodegradable packaging with a 35% smaller carbon footprint than petroleum-based plastic packages.
According to DesignNews.com, researchers in Spain and Portugal have made the first bioplastic from a cheese byproduct. The material is polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), obtained by a microbial fermentation bioprocess of whey, which is created during cheese production. It will be used as a biodegradable packaging material, called Wheypack, which can be tailored to specific dairy products.
One goal of the LIFE WHEYPACK European project was to obtain cheese packaging that is 100% biodegradable, which would enable a lower environmental impact, fulfill the requirements of product protection, and also be economically viable.
The project's second goal was to figure out what to do with all of the surplus whey derived from cheese-making. In Europe alone, the annual production of whey from cheese makers reaches 75 million tons. Most of the thin, milky fluid produced by the European dairy industry during milk and cheese processing returns to the food chain for manufacturing other dairy products, but about 40% is discarded and must be managed as a waste.
Instead, the Wheypack bioplastic process turns this waste into a product dairies can use. The circular economy, or closed-loop, project makes it possible for the generators of the waste, the dairy industry, to make a profit by the production of the new PHB biodegradable packaging tailored to the needs of their products.
The resulting PHB is being compounded and additivated by researchers at AIMPLAS to improve its properties for use as a food packaging material that can be processed with the same technology as polypropylene-based material.