Roughly a quarter of the fish sampled from fish markets in California and Indonesia contained man-made debris—plastic or fibrous material—in their guts, according to a study from the University of California, Davis and Hasanuddin University in Indonesia. The study, published last week in the journal Scientific Reports, is one of the first to [...]
In a bid to reduce waste, England has introduced a 5p charge on plastic bags. Scientists studying the impact of plastic waste on the marine environment have warned contamination could be passing up the food chain to humans. They've found tiny pieces of plastic inside the guts of zooplankton - the microscopic creatures [...]
On 21 October, Lord Jamie Lindsay will host a meeting at the House of Lords to share knowledge on the bioeconomy and to announce the new association representing industries in this sector, the BBIA.
As England prepares to introduce a charge for plastic bags, science editor David Shukman reports on the possible threat to the food chain, by the plastics broken down into tiny fragments in our oceans. Tests by the Plymouth Marine Laboratory have shown that when minuscule particles of plastic are in the water, [...]
BBIA held its first bioeconomy workshop in Birmingham on 22 September. Speakers from across the bioeconomy, from the UK and abroad, gave their experiences of the industry and looked at what policies could be influential in its future in the UK. You can find presentations given at the workshop available for download here.
A study by the nova-Institute has concluded that natural products such as apricot kernels, beeswax and bio-based and biodegradable polymers could replace microplastics in cosmetics.
BBIA will be attending the British Plastics Foundation’s (BPF) Bio-Based Polymer Interest Group ‘Bioplastics Roundtable Discussion: End of Life Opportunities’, on 15 October at the BPF’s offices in London.
Land degradation is an increasing issue globally, exacerbated by climate change and affecting food security, threatening water resources and ultimately acting as a driver to migration.The ELD study, undertaken over the past 4 years, quantifies the costs of land degradation and sets out a universal approach for quantifying the economic benefits of sustainable [...]
The ADMIT BioSuccInnovate Consortium, a group consisting of Imperial University, Aberystwyth University, French biorefining company CIMV and Netherlands-based Reverdia which will contribute its Biosuccinium sustainable biosuccinic acid technology to the project), is to investigate the use of agricultural waste such as wheat and maize straw, and low-maintenance energy crops including elephant grass and [...]
Advanced Packaging Technology World recently reported on a new bioplastic packaging collaboration between Veuve Cliquot and biopacking developer Netherlands-based PaperFoam. The design had to provide a high-quality appearance and make the product easy to carry, as well as keeping the champagne cool. This posed a challenge when using the potato starch-derived packaging material [...]