Yleinen

Authors: Jukka Seppälä, Aalto & Katri Valkokari, VTT Circularity of plastics is by definition a systemic challenge that requires dialogue between multidisciplinary experts in order to build solutions and understand development paths. Our research webinar covered the topic through three complementary thematic sessions. The first session started by looking at the challenge from the big …

Circularity of Plastics: experts’ dialogue on sustainable innovations Read More »

Authors: Rosa Maria Ballardini, Juha Vesala and Corinna Casi / University of Lapland The European Union is currently seeking to tackle the environmental issues that relate to plastics. The measures targeting or affecting plastics include particularly the Single-Use Plastics Directive (2019/904) that is due to implemented in EU Member States by 3 July 2021. EU …

Plastics and Current Legislative Developments – Some Insights Read More »

Authors: Niklas Kretzschmar, Sergei Chekurov and Jouni Partanen / Aalto University Even though additive manufacturing (AM), also known as industrial 3D printing, is already there for some decades facilitating the manufacture of new design variations and legacy parts, it is still considered as a set of new production technologies. For numerous technical reasons, AM hasn’t …

Additive manufacturing technologies –productivity and process innovation on a sustainable basis? Read More »

Authors: Katri Valkokari , Peter Ylen (VTT) & Rosa Ballardini and Juha Vesala (University of Lapland) A transition towards renewable and circular plastic ecosystems is a systemic challenge. In this regard, there is an obvious need to find the appropriate bundle of policy measures, incentives and regulation instruments to enhance the transition to a sustainable and …

Identifying policy-level instruments required for a more sustainable plastic future Read More »

Authors: Jukka Seppälä, Laura Äkräs, Kasper Dienel / Aalto University Plastics are central in our modern life and have plenty of good properties that advance sustainability. However, they have recently received a lot of negative and contradictory attention. But what materials are considered as plastics? This has been one of the key questions when preparing …

Sustainable plastics – what are they? Read More »

Authors: Satu Salminen, Jaakko Siltaloppi / Aalto University The transition from fossil-based to bio- and circular economy is emerging as one of the major necessary societal transitions of the coming decades. While bio-based and recycled plastics are increasingly perceived as opening future business opportunities, as we have identified in the ValueBioMat project, in practice only …

Building a business case for renewable plastics innovation among material producers Read More »

Author: Lars Vilen, Jaakko Siltaloppi / Aalto University The current linear economy model of plastics production and consumption entails a number of issues, including the leakage of plastics waste into the environment. Certainly the most salient issue from a political perspective, the environmental problems with plastics have induced a variety of political actions especially in …

Three avenues for developing plastic reuse and recycling Read More »

Authors: Hannu Ilvesniemi and Frans Silvenius / Luke The carbon-cycle of bio-based plastics occurs mainly in natural carbon balance: the raw materials are mainly plant-based products, and the carbon content of them has been taken from atmosphere, and when they decompose, the carbon taken from atmosphere returns back. The carbon balance is different when the …

Three pillars of sustainability Read More »

Authors: Jaakko Siltaloppi/ Aalto and Markus Jähi & Katri Valkokari/VTT Transitioning to ‘renewable’, bio-based and recycled plastics is not an easy task – or something one could do alone. Therefore, it is important to find new ways to engage a variety of stakeholders in a shared problem-solving process. Based on our research work at ValueBioMat …

Development paths of renewable plastics – what will the transition bring to the table? Read More »

Photo: Sentiero dei fiori, Adamello (Passo del Tonale), Italia /CC-license: Elena Staffoni Authors: Rosa Ballardini, Juha Vesala, Anette Alen-Savikko and Corinna Casi / University of Lapland We are on the verge of an environmental crisis. Ecological degradation caused by human activity, ranging from loss of species to climate change, is rapidly spreading globally at a …

Law, Innovation and Environmental Sustainability – From Vision to Reality Read More »