Polymers for Packaging Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Today, plastics cover up to 50% of primary packaging thanks to their positive features such as being lightweight, their flexibility, strength, transparency, impermeability, ease of sterilization, and so on. The low cost, their easy manufacturing and their great resistance to physical ageing and biological degradation are the keys to this success. However, this massive consumption is accompanied by consistent waste generation with an important environmental footprint. Taking into consideration that over 30% of plastics wastes are land-filled, the use of bioplastics could be considered as a sustainable alternative.

A great and growing interest in sustainability is so driving the development of "biobased" packaging materials, i.e., obtainable from renewable sources, which could be, or not, biodegradable and that are characterized by minimum waste production, transport efficiency and controlled after-use disposal and/or recycling.

Taking into consideration that aromatic polyesters like poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and aliphatic polyolefins like polyehylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) dominate the packaging scene, due to their competitive chemical–physical, barrier and mechanical performance-to-cost ratio, the interest of researchers and industry versus new biobased polymers. Considering the actual scenario, in particular, academic as well as industrial interest is oriented to finding bio-source alternatives to produce them, reducing petroleum dependence and carbon dioxide emissions.

This Special Issue will aim to discuss new packaging solutions, with an ultimate goal of denoting weaknesses and opportunities to improve sustainability efficiency in the packaging sector.

In particular, bio-based polymers obtained from renewable resources are driving ambitions to replace conventional packaging materials, coming from non-renewable resources, in order to reach a more sustainable development of the packaging industry.

This Special Issue will give a chance to the academic, as well as industrial, world to present an overview of novel polymers for packaging applications, focusing attention on their mechanical, chemical–physical, morphological and gas barrier performances, in order to establish a structure–property relationship. Mechanisms and pathways of polymer degradation will also be taken into consideration. These new smart plastics will be compared to traditional ones, which are extensively employed in the food packaging sector.

Research papers, as well as reviews, are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Valentina Siracusa
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.