Authors: Esko Hakanena, Jan Holmströma, Teemu Mikolaa, Kirsi Immonenb, Jukka Niskanenc, Hannu Ilvesniemid, Corinna Casie, Kirsi Kukkof, Jouni Partanenf Plastics are often portrayed as a problem when tackling climate change. Plastic products made from fossil raw materials also deplete non-renewable resources. Moreover, plastics are commonly incinerated at the end of their life, to avoid microplastics …
Author: Teemu Mikola In recent years, the environmental problems related to plastic materials have been gaining increasing attention. Although plastic materials deliver many benefits, such as durability, light weight, and low cost, they depend on fossil resources and create emissions and harmful waste in many stages of their value chain. To address these challenges, the …
Authors: Jukka Seppälä & Arun Teotia (Aalto University) and Katri Valkokari (VTT) European Commission has published a policy framework for biobased, biodegradable and compostable plastics on 30.11.2022. Here the authors aim to share our elaboration on essential key statements and conclusions related to the EU framework. COM(2022) 682 final (1) In Europe and internationally, biobased, …
Katri Valkokari The researchers of the ValueBioMat project are eager to find new ways to disseminate the research results in order to actively support the transition towards more sustainable plastic ecosystems. A good example of this work is the Talking Plastics podcast hosted by our researchers. Listening to the podcast series, it is nice to …
Photo by Nguyen TP Hai on Unsplash Authors: Laura Äkräs and Marjatta Vahvaselkä No alternative is perfect, yet advantageous in the right context You already know this, but let’s recapitulate! Nowadays, the role of biomass-derived, bio-based feedstock has increased as a raw material for a myriad of end applications as one approach to reduce some of the negative …
A dive into the multifaceted sustainability of plant-based oils for plastics Read More »
Author: Corinna Casi The beginning of a new journey: The ValueBioMat project Two years and half have passed since the beginning of the ValueBioMat (VBM) project funded by the Strategic Research Council of the Academy of Finland. Since then, my role as Doctoral researcher has evolved immensely: I got more and more responsibilities internally within …
Author: Anna Leinonen/ VTT How can research fulfil such challenging purposes as creating great societal impact or developing solutions to extremely complex and systemic grand challenges? Moreover, what are the implications of such aspirations to the understanding of the researcher’s role, if innovation and high-quality research are not the only expectations of research output? Above …
Research for societal impact – What does it mean to researchers? Read More »
Exploring Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) brand owner strategies for a sustainable plastics economy Authors: Pyry Päivölä & Jaakko Siltaloppi (Aalto) Today, approximately 25% of all plastics produced are used in packaging, which amounts to a nearly 100 million tonnes annually. The majority of plastics packaging is used in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry. …
Incremental actions for transformative outcomes? Read More »
Systeeminen muutos kohti muovin kestävää valmistusta ja käyttöä edellyttää uudentyyppisten materiaaliratkaisujen kehittämistä sekä arvoverkoston roolien uudistamista. Uusien ratkaisujen syntymistä voidaan tukea varmistamalla, että yhteiskunnallinen ja taloudellinen ohjaus tukevat toinen toisiaan. Systeemisiä ongelmia ratkaistaan kokeilemalla, vuorovaikutuksella ja epävarmuutta paremmin ymmärtämällä, siksi tarvitaan ekosysteemitason tarkastelua muutoksen ajureista. ValueBioMat projektin tutkijat Jaakko Siltaloppi Aalto-yliopistosta ja Markus Jähi VTT:ltä …
Authors: Frans Silvenius, Marjatta Vahvaselkä and Hannu Ilvesniemi / Luke When performing a life-cycle assessment (LCA), data is collected from all relevant parts of different production systems related to the whole value chain covering the raw material, manufacturing, transport and waste management phases. This essential and time-consuming task can be done by using different data …
Data collection for life-cycle assessments in project ValueBioMat Read More »