BIOPOLYMERS: NEW AESTHETICS AND PERFORMANCE

At NOI TechPark, a technology and scientific hub in Bolzano-Bozen, Alex Terzariol, during the “Sustainable Materials: The Plastic Transition” event, presented MM Design's case study on cradle-to-cradle practices and highlighted the main emerging trends in the field of biopolymers, which are influencing product design.

Thanks to the growing emphasis on sustainability, there is a significant drive to explore alternative materials that offer comparable performance to virgin fossil-based polymers.
This cultural shift is also reshaping product design, with biopolymers becoming the new frontier in meeting aesthetic and performance requirements.

Alex Terzariol addressed the following topics:

• Advanced Biopolymers
  The next generation of PLA materials with enhanced performance characteristics.
• Scalable production of renewable plastics through new technologies
  Biopolymers are increasingly preferred due to their cost-effectiveness and ease of processing, enabling integration into existing production lines originally designed for conventional plastics.
• Resource conservation
  By utilising by-products from the food industry and agricultural waste, alternative biopolymers are being developed that contribute to conserving resources.
• Improving degradability
  Efforts are being made to enhance the degradability of biopolymers without releasing harmful chemicals or microplastics into the environment.