Developing plant-based and biodegradable thermoplastic pellets to replace plastic

Plastic pellets (“nurdles”) are the pre-production building blocks for nearly all plastic products. However, with a diameter of less than 5 mm, these tiny and lightweight particles (classed as primary microplastics) are lost at every point in the plastics supply chain (during production, transport, and manufacturing), reaching the environment even before being used to make anything useful.

In the UK, it is estimated that up to 53 billion plastic pellets (weighing 1,054 tonnes) reach the oceans each year (Cole and Sherrington, 2016), while across Europe up to 78,000 tonnes/year (3.9 trillion) enter the oceans (Hann et al., 2018), and globally nearly 230,000 tonnes/year of pellets (11.5 trillion) reach the oceans (Sherrington, 2016).

Pellet release contributes to both the plastics and climate crises. The production of 230,000 tonnes/year of pellets lost in the oceans consumes over 280,000 tonnes/year of non-renewable crude oil (Khoo and Tan, 2010) and is responsible for releasing approximately 690,000 tonnes/year of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (Harding et al., 2007). In the oceans, plastic pellets persist and bioaccumulate, acting as “toxic sponges” and transport vectors for chemicals (Mato et al., 2001) and harmful bacteria (Rodrigues et al., 2019), entering the food chain and ultimately reaching humans (Danopoulos et al., 2022).

Globally, millions of tonnes of plastic pellets are processed each year into single-use flexible plastic packaging film. This film delivers performance in use, but has poor end-of-life characteristics. Film is challenging to collect, sort, and recycle and is typically sent to landfill, or for incineration, often reaching the environment. Once in the environment, film is non-biodegradable and releases persistent microplastics.

With global plastics production reaching 368 million tonnes in 2019 (European Bioplastics, 2020) and predicted to increase by a further 32% between 2020 and 2030 (Statista, 2020), there is an urgent need to develop bio-based and biodegradable alternatives, especially for single-use flexible packaging film that has limited end-of-life options. The development of a drop-in solution for plastics manufacturers (“converters”) is critical to adoption at scale.

Inspired by nature, Xampla has developed a next-generation bio-based and biodegradable material produced from plant proteins. With Innovate UK support, we will develop plant-based and biodegradable thermoplastic film as a drop-in replacement for plastic films manufactured from thermoplastic pellets. The project outputs will support the UK's ambition to become a world leader in sustainable packaging, addressing global plastics and climate crises.