Eastman’s Bioplastic Foam Aces Tests

Eastman has long been synonymous with plastics, but a recent innovation from the company opens new opportunities in packaging and other markets in an entirely new direction.

The breakthrough is Eastman Aventa, a cellulosic bioplastic engineered to redefine compostable materials. A new scientific study highlights Aventa’s degradability across various environments, including that the material degrades four times faster than paper in marine conditions, offering a potential game-changer for sustainable packaging.

The study published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering concluded that Aventa biodegradable cellulose diacetate (CDA)-based foams are commercially useful and will not persist in oceans as plastic pollution.

Notably, the CDA foams aren’t limited to lab-level research — Aventa packaging applications are available through SEE’s Cryovac brand.

“These materials are already used in commercial applications, such as protein trays, and adoption continues to grow,” discloses Jeff Carbeck, Eastman vice president, corporate innovation and care solutions technology.

Carbeck also informs us that Aventa compostable solutions include other single-use plastic applications such as disposable straws and cutlery.

However, the sweet spot for Aventa is replacing polystyrene, particularly expanded PS (EPS) packaging.

Related:Compostable Tray Nudges EPS From the Meat Case

“With regulatory bans on polystyrene, Eastman Aventa is positioned to be an excellent drop-in replacement because it maintains the same performance requirements while achieving environmental benefits,” Carbeck explains. “Relative to competitive materials in the market, Aventa is made responsibly from sourced wood pulp and returns to nature as compost.

"Also, traditional plastic foams face challenges in end-of-life management, often unintentionally ending up as plastic pollution in the environment. Eastman Aventa materials offer a sustainable alternative, and this research shows that CDA-based foams will not contribute to persistent marine plastic pollution."

Study: Aventa provides performance, cost savings.

The study was led by scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), the world's leading independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to ocean research, exploration and education. WHOI's research and journal article focuses on CDA-based foams made with Aventa, which lost up to 70% of their mass after 36 weeks of incubation in seawater. In contrast, polystyrene foams (expanded polystyrene aka EPS), a material commonly used for food packaging, showed no signs of degradation.

Test results: Eastman Aventa CDA foam outperforms other material options. Credit: ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2024, 12, 43, 16030-16040

Specifically, the study found that CDA foams degrade faster than any material evaluated under environmentally relevant marine conditions — more than quadruple that of paper and up to 1,000 times greater than solid forms of polypropylene, polystyrene, or polylactic acid (PLA).

"Foaming biodegradable bioplastics like Aventa offer a promising strategy to reduce the environmental impact of frequently mismanaged consumer plastics, particularly in food packaging applications," says Collin Ward, associate scientist at WHOI and the study’s lead researcher. "These materials not only degrade rapidly in the ocean but also support circularity and material efficiency."

The study dived deeper into a systems-level assessment for redesigning plastic articles for food packaging applications, considering material performance, economics, sustainability and circularity. 

RICK LINGLE VIA CANVA

Polystyrene is commonly used in food packaging, but it is not biodegradable and is difficult to recycle. Using calculations that include annual consumption rates and the social costs of pollution, the study concludes that switching from polystyrene to CDA-based foams for food trays could potentially save society more than $1 billion by reducing costs associated with plastic pollution. The study highlights the need for holistic assessments of environmental impact to avoid swapping one issue for another.

“There are many factors to consider from the value created by using Aventa, including savings to society, energy, and persistence in the environment,” offers Carbeck. “As the WHOI study notes, switching from PS to CDA foam could equate to annual savings for society due to a reduction in the cost of plastic pollution of $1.6 billion for food trays and $114 million for takeaway containers.”

The ACS study report can be found here.

Read more about Eastman at PlasticsToday.