Polymers from Renewable Resources, 2nd Volume

Dear Colleagues,

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has estimated that approximately one-third of the food produced for human consumption is still lost or wasted annually. In this context, the polymeric materials used as food packaging play a key role in reducing food waste and providing food preservation while avoiding external contamination. Polymer packaging usage occupies the maximal share of polymer implementations and remains highly challenging in waste management and environmental pollution elimination. Unfortunately, when traditional plastic food packaging is used, we still follow a linear economy with a huge loss of energy and consumption of non-renewable resources as well as catastrophically polluting the environment. The most interesting challenge of the near future will, therefore, be to use the food waste inevitably created and renewable resources to obtain new bio-based and biodegradable materials, with chemical, physical, mechanical and gas transport characteristics being suitable for the food to be preserved, inserting packaging in a context of a circular economy. In the framework of circular bioeconomy, owing to the distinct advantages over traditional petrol-based polymers, nowadays, bio-based plastics constitute a small but growing segment of the global polymer market, namely, 0.6% (2.4 million ton) with the prospect to achieve 7.6 million ton (>2%) in 2026 [https://www.european-bioplastics.org/market/]. Among them, biodegradable polymers such as PHB, PHA, PLA, polysaccharides and others make up >1.5 million ton (64% of total biopolymers’ output) currently and is expected to gain 5.3 million tons (70%) in the same 2026. The number of papers published in the previous issue (19 manuscripts) encourages us to continue with the next second collection which will again cover the actual topics related to bioplastics from renewable resources, including innovative raw materials, polymerization processes, full characterization, functionality performance, transport phenomena, final application and, of course, life cycle assessment analysis on materials and processes. Research articles, reviews, short communications and case studies on this topic are welcome, with the main aim of sharing academic and industrial efforts related to new and innovative sustainable materials and technologies.

Dr. Valentina Siracusa
Prof. Dr. Nadia Lotti
Dr. Michelina Soccio
Prof. Dr. Alexey L. Iordanskii
Topic Editors