Mariette Andersson

Biopolymers – The Natural Choice?

Mariette Andersson

Flextrus AB
Åkerlund & Rausings väg 10
Tel: +46. 4618 3402 Fax: +46. 4618 3221

Biography

Dr. Mariette Andersson currently holds the position of Development Engineer in the area of flexible packaging materials at Flextrus. Prior to joining Flextrus in 2008, she worked 12 years in the Plant Biotechnology industry. As a Senior Research Scientist at Plant Science Sweden AB, a member of the BASF Plant Science group, Mariette was heading research activities in the biopolymer area focusing on industrial starch qualities in particular. Mariette received a B.S in medical laboratory science in 1995 and a PhD in Biochemistry from Lund University in 2004.

Company Profile

Our customers market, protect and preserve their products in the best possible way using flexible packaging with advanced barriers. They have high requirements associated with their products and brands and need packaging materials with the desired feel, appearance and functional properties.

As one of the leaders in flexible packaging in Northern Europe, we supply environmentally responsible materials. We take a step closer to our customers and participate in their development in a structured manner. Flextrus has a turnover of € 75 million and operates two factories in Lund, Sweden and Somerset, UK, with 250 employees.
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Our vision is simple – to become the natural choice for our customers, suppliers, employees and other partners. Close cooperation and teamwork provide the bases for our success.

Abstract

Packaging is of most importance for a sustainable future, while questioned in many aspects. Without packaging a lot of our pharmaceutical-, medical- and food products will have limited consumer safety and product durability. Consumers and retailers demand more environmentally friendly packaging alternative to the once produced today. In this context, biopolymers are often seen as the natural choice. However sustainability is so much more, which can be summarised with the 5 R-words; Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover and Renewable. Today you can do a lot for the environment by applying one or more of these five aspects.

The nomenclature in the bioplastics world is confusing. Biopolymers are defined as polymers produced from renewable raw material or polymers that are biodegradable. Notably biopolymers can be produced from fossil based raw material if made biodegradable. There are several biopolymers produced today, however the total usage of biopolymers is small. There are both opportunities and obstacle with using biopolymers. In general, the challenge for the biopolymer market is to improve the price, processability and functionality to be comparable with traditionally used plastics.

The presentation will cover many aspects with influence on the final environmentally optimised packaging, where Flextrus have the knowledge to apply them based on specific customer needs.