Jordon Lazell – SIMBIO Research

The UK SIMBIO team have published their third and final SIMBIO report. This document details the findings from their third innovation lab event and gives implications for the project as a whole. Authored by Professor Benny Tjahjono, Dr. Macarena Beltran, Dr. Jordon Lazell, Dr. David Bek and Dr. Anna Bogush, the document provides an overview of the content discussed in the third Social Innovation Lab ‘Prototyping Solutions’ by stakeholders from the bioplastics industry, retail sector, consumer associations, government agency representatives, NGOs and international and UK academics.

The ‘Prototyping Solutions’ lab was held both online (via Zoom) and onsite (TechnoCentre in the city of Coventry) on the 25th of November, 2021, with the objective of evaluating the feasibility, practicality, and potential impacts of six cluster solutions to improve the sustainable uptake of BBPP, as well as prototyping and testing these solutions within the social innovation lab container. The six cluster solutions that emerged from the previous labs are: communication with consumers, end-of-life policies, certification standards and labelling, and education and development of specific products. The information provided in this report is based on presentations from eight experts who discussed their views on these six cluster solution areas, as well as the breakout discussion sessions with stakeholders and prototyping sessions for three BBPP products: ready meal trays, coffee pods and food caddy liners.

This report also sets out the key policy and industrial action recommendations that need to be taken
collaboratively across the supply chain to be able to move forward with the uptake of BBPP. In order to
provide a wider analysis and discussion, this document reviewed the current UK and EU policy gap and
integrated the findings from the three social innovation labs carried out between March and November
2021: a) Seeing the System; b) Designing solutions, and c) Prototyping solutions, which gathered diverse
stakeholder perspectives and collectively identified actions to support a future pathway for the biobased
biodegradable plastic sector. These are:

R&D for specific products

Policy recommendation #1: Expand R&D investments to produce products that offer an alternative to fossil-based plastics that are hard to recycle and/or prone to contamination, or provide extra environmental benefits over other materials.
Policy recommendation #2: R&D investments to continue evaluating the sustainability of biobased biodegradable plastic products by looking at the life cycle.
Policy recommendation #3: Expand R&D investments to improve biodegradability in industrialfacilities and home compost.

End-of-life

Policy recommendation #4: Invest in industrial composting and adequate anaerobic digestion facilities to support the uptake of biobased biodegradable plastic packaging products.
Policy recommendation #5: Create disposal and collection routes for biobased biodegradable plastic packaging products.

Certification standards

Policy recommendation #6: Greater accountability and collaboration to implement certification standards that must ensure alignment with both product labelling measures and waste management procedures.

Communication

Industrial action recommendation #1: A comprehensive marketing strategy that includes different layers and at various supply chain stages.

Education

Policy recommendation #7: Create education programmes focused on removing consumer confusion from labelling, providing memorable advice to encourage the right end-of-life procedure.
Policy recommendation #8: Develop educational programmes aimed at home composters to guide them in the biodegradability of plastics.
Industrial action recommendation #2: Develop educational campaigns aimed at key composter associations to guide them in the processing of composting biobased biodegradable plastics.

Overall policy

Policy recommendation #9: Develop a policy framework for biobased biodegradable plastic packaging, focusing upon R&D, communication, certification and labelling, education and end-of-life.

See the report document for further details.

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‘Prototyping Solutions for Bioplastics’: Interactive social innovation lab research techniques involving scenario games

By Macarena Beltran, Benny Tjahjono, David Bek, Jordon Lazell, Anna Bogush and Lahandi Baskoro

Unlocking the bioplastics supply chain

The Social Innovation Management for Bioplastics project – SIMBIO – led by the Centre for Business in Society in Coventry University and funded by the ESRC, aims to address the environmental and social challenges of bioplastics packaging throughout its entire supply chain. Focusing on bioplastics is important as the packaging industry faces an imperative to reduce the devastating environmental impacts created by fossil-fuel based plastics. The third and final SIMBIO lab entitled Prototyping Solutions was held on the 25th of November, 2021 online (via Zoom) and Onsite (TechnoCentre in Coventry). The lab aimed to evaluate the feasibility, practicality, and potential impacts of solutions that emerged from the second lab, which include: communication with consumers, end of life, policies, certification standards and labelling, education and development of specific products. The lab also aimed to prototype and test these solutions within the social innovation lab “container”.

Participants representing a wide range of stakeholders, including producers, academics, consumers, NGOs, waste management and government representatives, and other important organisations that are part of the bioplastic packaging supply chain, joined the lab to hear from industry experts and participate in two exercises. The event was kicked off with the welcome talk from Professor Nigel Berkeley, Institute Director in the Faculty of Business and Law. This was then followed by a reminder of the mission of the SIMBIO project and a recap from the previous labs from Professor Benny Tjahjono of Coventry University.

Views from industry experts with a wide range of expertise and backgrounds

The event featured presentations from industry experts who were invited to share their knowledge about the different streams of solutions. Kevin Vyse, Head of Technical, ProAmpac RAP, made an opening address that highlighted the timely need for a circular economy and systemic actions in the bioplastic sector. David Newman, Managing Director, Bio-Based and Biodegradable Industries Association (BBIA), presented the findings of a survey conducted with British shoppers, which explored communication issues with consumers, such as people’s [lack of] understanding of the current labelling system for plastics packaging.

Following this presentation, Alice Harlock, Membership and Services Manager from The On-Pack Recycling Label (OPRL), talked about labelling. She emphasised the idea that consumers need information at targeted touchpoints to influence their behaviour. Dr Erik Ansink, Associate Professor at the Department of Spatial Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, shared the main findings of his study about recycling decisions for bioplastics. He suggested that educating consumers to change the default recycling behaviour needs efforts beyond logos and recycling information.

Leanne Williams, Policy Analyst from The Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA), reviewed certain waste management processes, regulation and policy (end-of-life) that need to be improved for the processing of bioplastics by the AD sector, Susan Jay, Sector Specialist from The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) shared with the participants the “Compostable plastic packaging guidance” which recommended the use of bioplastics materials for specific applications such as flexible compostable packaging “where it is likely there will be contamination of food waste and co-disposal could encourage food waste recycling – product and packaging can, in theory, be disposed of together” and rigid compostable packaging, primarily in closed systems.

Prof Mark Miodownik, Professor of Materials and Society, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Sciences, UCL, shared some of the findings of his project “Big Compost experiment” and finally Iris Aquilina, leader of the Bioladies Network and Ambassador of BBIA, discussed the policy and regulatory landscape in the UK and EU around the adoption of bioplastics.

*The SIMBIO boardgame developed for the third workshop*

Prototyping Solutions for specific products under certain scenarios

The lab featured two workshop exercises with the participants. Firstly, participants were invited to join parallel break-out sessions to explore the feasibility, practicality and impact of the different solution streams explored by the speakers. On-site break-out sessions focused on specific products, end of life and policies. Break-out sessions delivered ample discussion on the complexities of these solutions.

Secondly, to facilitate the prototyping and testing of different solutions for the uptake of bioplastics products, the research team from CBiS and CAWR created a scenario board game inspired by the Scenario Exploration System produced by the European Union’s Policy Lab team. The latter is used to understand the systemic implications of different actions. Participants were divided into three groups. To create a realistic scenario environment, each group was assigned to a specific product (coffee pods, food caddy liners and ready meal trays) and a particular crisis scenario (e.g. climate change, prolonged pandemic and economic crisis) which encouraged participants to adapt their strategies.

The players were then invited to prioritise certain processes within the bioplastic supply chain (designed in the first social innovation lab) and assign limited resources within different time horizons (5, 10 and 20 years). Resources were related to the solutions streams explored. Players were also encouraged by the game masters to develop collaborative solutions. Whilst there were no winners or losers in each scenario game –the participants were encouraged to indicate which scenario is more feasible to be prototyped.

The discussions during the games have helped participants to think of ways of driving the uptake of biobased biodegradable plastics packaging. Furthermore, it was clear that such participatory approaches play an important role in bringing stakeholders from different sectors to co-create solutions and promote sustainability at the same time.

bioplastics, Coventry, Report, social innovation lab

Designing Solutions Report: Findings from the second UK SIMBIO Social Innovation Lab

Designing Solutions: Findings from the second UK SIMBIO Social Innovation Lab Download

This report presents the main findings from the second Social Innovation Lab ‘Designing Solutions’,
which was held online on the 10th of June 2021 to expand on possible ‘solutions’ that challenge
the norms in bioplastics packaging, identify promising solutions for rapid prototyping, and explore
future pathways for improving the sustainable uptake of bioplastics packaging.

Stakeholders from the bioplastics industry, retail sector, consumer associations, government
agencies, NGOs and international and UK academics identified three areas of solutions that currently
have the highest potential to drive change to a sustainable packaging system. Participants identified:
communication with consumers, certification standards & guidelines, and end of life as the most
promising solutions applicable to a biobased biodegradable plastics packaging system (also referred
to as ‘compostable plastics’ in this report). These solutions were seen as complementary and under
a dynamic process, which, combined with long-term measures, such as education and policy/
regulatory measures, may help facilitate the sustainable transition of packaging to compostable
plastics packaging.

The second lab also proposed that compostable plastics packaging uptake could not be seen
in isolation from the packaging system. They also emphasised the improvement needed to clarify
the information on all packaging products and the advanced management practices required for
the disposal and collection of all recycled materials by the different actors (e.g. workplaces, local
councils). Besides, they called attention to the need to find ways to provide alternative solutions
for packaging used on a regular basis in homes (e.g. bathroom products in bottles). This type of
packaging may be currently highly recycled; however, due to their frequency of use, these packaging
forms can also be reused, refilled, or further re-invented.

The envisioned sustainable pathway by 2030 requires a more fine-grained development of innovations
that will be discussed in the third social innovation lab, i.e. ‘rapid prototyping of potential solutions’.
This pathway is expected to be supported by innovations (e.g. product innovation, process innovation,
service innovation, etc.) and policy changes.

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The 2nd UK SIMBIO Social Innovation lab – Designing Solutions

by Macarena Beltran, Jordon Lazell, Benny Tjahjono, David Bek and Anna Bogush

The second of three UK Social Innovation labs focusing on the sustainability of bioplastic packaging was held on the 10th of June 2021. Participants representing a wide range of stakeholders, including producers, retail, consumers, NGOs, and important organisations that are part of the bioplastic packaging supply chain, joined to hear from expert speakers and participate in a workshop exercise.

The event kicked off with a reminder of the mission of the SIMBIO project from Professor Benny Tjahjono from Coventry University. The SIMBIO project seeks to address the bioplastic packaging sector’s economic, social and environmental challenges through social innovation methods. This lab focused on agreeing and expanding on potential solutions. This was informed by the findings of the first lab, which provided a number of recommendations for sustainable pathways moving forward. https://simbioresearch.com/seeing-the-system-report-uk-report/. System Thinking concepts to guide the selection of impactful solutions were also introduced by Dr Macarena Beltran from Coventry University.

Following this introduction, the event featured a presentation from Paul Thompson. Paul leads the Compostable Material Certificate Scheme at REAL (Renewable Energy Assurance Limited) as well as feeding into wider organics policy development. Paul gave a detailed overview of the certification scheme and its importance in overcoming the contamination issues that conventional plastic cause in compost generation from waste materials. Paul highlighted the need for certification to be combined with clear messaging for end-users to ensure proper disposal.

The second speaker, Rob Whitehouse, is the Waste Reduction Project Coordinator for Garden Organic. He coordinates council-funded waste reduction projects to reduce household food waste and supports the master composter programme. Rob’s presentation focused on the consumer views and his organisation’s experiments with composting bio-plastic materials, explaining the barriers against further bioplastic use. Rob highlighted some of the challenges that households and local authorities are facing in composting bioplastics materials and the potential of long term legislative and labelling solutions such as banning plastic bags.

Paul Thompson from (REAL) outlines the requirements of the compostable material certification scheme

Rob explains the role that legislation could play to improve material collection

The event then featured a workshop exercise whereby participants first ranked and then prioritised six solutions. These were ranked with the imperative of communication with consumers coming out on top, followed by the need for more work in the area of certification standards & guidelines and finally, the need to address the end of life management of compostable packaging products. Participants were also asked to select the most “infuriating” packaging product that is a good candidate for compostable plastics. Very interesting views of participants were collected about the replacement/development of different daily used packaging. Breakout sessions delivered ample discussion on the complexities of these priority areas with participants also considering what stage of success these solutions might reach in 10 years’ time.

The top three solutions voted for by participants included communication, certification standards & guidelines and end of life solutions

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Upcoming event – 2nd UK Social Innovation Lab Event: Designing the system

Please register here: https://www.eventsforce.net/cugroup/296/home

We would like to invite you to join us on June 10th 2021, at the Second Bioplastics Social Innovation Lab – “Designing the System”. As an input for the second lab, we are happy to share the “Seeing the System” report (first lab) that proposes recommendations based on the participant insights and the BBIA report that explain the biodegradable and compostable polymer materials briefly.

At the event, we will evaluate current recommendations from the first social innovation lab to unblock the bioplastic packaging supply chain. We also want to:

expand on possible “solutions” that challenge the norms in bioplastic packaging
identify promising solutions for rapid prototyping
explore future pathways for improving the sustainable uptake of bioplastic packaging

Follow-up Innovation Labs – prototyping solutions – will be organised in August-September 2021.

We are delighted to announce that this event will include keynote addresses from Paul Thompson (REAL – Renewable Energy Assurance Limited) and Rob Whitehouse (Garden Organic) and it will be facilitated by members of Coventry University and Dr Dee Hennessy from Creative Exchange.

Outline

9:30 Welcome and Starting Points

Update:

Professor Benny Tjahjono, Professor of Supply Chain Management at Centre for Business in Society, Coventry University.

Perspectives

Paul Thompson. Owner and Stakeholder Engagement of Compostable Materials. Renewable Energy Assurance Limited – REAL

Rob Whitehouse. Waste reduction Projects Coordinator. Garden Organic.

Exploring Possibilities

Embracing Consumer Perspectives

Task Group Focus

Insights and Ways Forward

Next Steps

11:30 Close

bioplastics

An explanation of Biodegradable and Compostable Polymer Materials from the BBIA

A new report document from the BBIA (the Bio-Based and Biodegradable Industries Asociation) provides an explanation of Biodegradable and Compostable Polymer Materials.

A-brief-explanation-from-the-Bio-based-and-Biodegradable-Industries-Association-April-2021 Download

The report gives further information on the process of biodegradation and it relevance to polymer materials. Such knowledge is critical in the bioplastics sector with two key characteristics explained as being important in determining whether and when the biodegradability of a bioplastic is useful:

To be of practical value the rate of biodegradation has to be appropriate to the timescale of the end use/application involved.
The environment in which the bioplastic finds itself at the end of life. Sometimes bioplastics will break down in certain conditions but not in others (e.g., a material might biodegrade in compost or soil, but not in a marine environment). A few biopolymers will biodegrade under a wider range of environments, for example polyhydroxy alkanoates (PHAs), but these are not a panacea – property and processing characteristics can still restrict potential end uses.

The report also gives further details on the process of composting, annaerobic digestion and soil degradation with reference to the biodegradability of polymer materials. The report also highlights the challenges of achieving biodegradation of biopolymer materials in freshwater and marine environments. The lack of biodegradability of ‘oxo-degradation’ materials is also explained.

Overall the report clarifies many points around the use of biobased materials. The key summary points are as follows:

Biodegradability as a property of a material should always be qualified with reference to the particular environment(s), end uses and relevant timescales.

Standards and/or protocols are largely in place for aerobic composting and anaerobic digestion, as well as soil, freshwater and marine biodegradation. These define appropriate testing environments, timescales and criteria for the useful deployment of biodegradable materials.

There is a need to simplify the messaging on biodegradability and compostability via a clearer labelling system – an initiative that is already underway in the UK.

Bioplastics are, for now, niche products, best suited to a range of specific applications where their environmental credentials offer real benefits over fossil-fuel alternatives.

More information about the BBIA can be found here: https://bbia.org.uk/

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Tackling the problem of plastics in the pandemic era: Update on the SIMBIO (Social Innovation Management for BIOPlastics) project

As a multi-functionary, low cost, ubiquitous material, plastic has been adopted as the preferred option for a wide range of applications. Recently plastic has become vital in protecting people from the COVID-19 virus. The demand for PPE (personal protective equipment) has skyrocketed in becoming an essential everyday item for key workers and front line services, as well as in the form of mandated mask wearing. Plastic packaging has been a crucial material in allowing aspects of everyday life to continue. The significant growth in online shopping has increased the usage of packaging. Consumers have given a renewed importance to the need for packaging as a protective layer over food products.

The mountain of plastic currently being produced however is one of the most pressing environmental concerns of the 21st century. Derived from fossil fuels, plastics are made of highly persistent particles, from a micrometer to a nanometer in size, which once entered into the environment are an uncontrollable threat to both human health and ecosystems. Humans are exposed to millions of plastic particles from the micro-plastics found babies bottles to our exposure through food and water to being found in the tissue that makes up our organs. Plastic are now ever-present in our environment. It is estimated that there is 14 million pieces of plastic less than 5mm wide on the ocean floor, 30 times more than on the surface with few environments untouched by plastic pollution. The delicate microorganisms that make up the cell structure of life have been shown to carry chemical contaminants resulting from plastics affecting soil balance, chemistry and its microbiology. Whilst the recycling agenda is gaining in momentum and the efforts to ban single use plastic products such as cutlery, cotton buds and drink straws are reducing plastic use, these efforts are just a drop in the ocean. The production of plastic still grossly outstrips recycling efforts. With the utility of plastic products being further cemented over the course of the global corona virus pandemic, now more than ever a sustainable alternative is needed.

Bio-plastics (bio-degradable plastics) have been heralded as an ideal replacement to conventional plastics. Bio-plastics have the potential to break down within different environments under the right conditions. Bio-plastics can be produced from renewable raw materials and have already proved advantageous in certain applications such as for horticultural products, disposable packaging, catering and tableware, shopping bags, clothing and cosmetic products amongst other uses. Although yielding much promise presently their uptake is low and predicted to represent only 1% of 335 million tonnes of plastic produced annually.

Efforts to expand the application of bio-plastics are facing a number of challenges. There is currently a mismatch between the characteristics of bio-plastics and their ability to replicate the properties of conventional plastics in a cost-effective way. There is some confusion between bio-plastic applications that can breakdown in the natural environment and those that require further processes. There is a need to upgrade the existing biodegradability standards to meet the needs of the industry as well as manage end-of-life disposal is a sustainable way. Given the increasing pressure to find an alternative to plastics, there is a timely need for greater innovation in this sector.

The SIMBIO (Social Innovation Management for BIOPlastics) research project partners 4 universities to better understand how bio-based packaging innovation will impact the environment and diverse stakeholders across the supply chain. Funded through the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council, Coventry University is working alongside Simon Fraser University (Canada), the University of Lodz (Poland), the SGH Warsaw School and Economics (Poland) and the Federal University of Sao Carlos (Brazil) to develop social innovations that will address the environmental and social challenges of bio-plastic packaging throughout its entire supply chain from production to end-of-life management.

Despite the disruption of the pandemic, the project is progressing well. In each of the partner countries interviews are being held with key stakeholders in the bio-plastic industries to establish the application of current standards and perspectives on best uses. This is the first in a series of steps to an inclusive social innovation process. Colleagues in Canada are leading the way in producing a design brief document in collaboration with their stakeholders. This details the results of the first online workshop which communicated the findings of the key stakeholder interviews to discuss the role of bio-plastics in a circular economy, how they are envisaged as a replacement to plastics, their cost biodegradability, standardisation, environmental impact and the active regulatory framework. The online workshop utilised the Zoom software’s breakout feature, allocating groups of stakeholders to focused dialogue sessions. Here, supported bythe visual brainstorming platform Miro, stakeholders reflected on current challenges in the field and the pathways to collaborative working. A horns of dilemma debate then brought participants together to address contradictions, such as navigating the advantages and disadvantages of bio-plastics and how to make bio-plastics cost competitive than their fossil fuel-based equivalent.

This stakeholder interviews has revealed that the challenges of increasing bio-plastic applications in the packaging industry are complex and furthermore the solutions are not clearly defined. The social innovation process of encouraging dialogue between industry representatives is crucial in moving forward. The research team at Coventry University (Prof. Benny Tjahjono, David Bek, Macarena Beltran and Jordon Lazell) are currently developing the interview materials as well as the format of the social innovation process that will form the content of 3 workshops sessions carried out remotely over the next few months. The outcome of this will be meaningful engagement with a cross-section of stakeholders to facilitate technological development in this area, with the social innovation method holding strengths in solving complex, multi-faceted problems.

Author: Jordon Lazell

New report: Findings from the third UK SIMBIO innovation lab and UK SIMBIO project implications

‘Prototyping Solutions for Bioplastics’: Interactive social innovation lab research techniques involving scenario games

The 2nd UK SIMBIO Social Innovation lab – Designing Solutions

Upcoming event – 2nd UK Social Innovation Lab Event: Designing the system

An explanation of Biodegradable and Compostable Polymer Materials from the BBIA

Tackling the problem of plastics in the pandemic era: Update on the SIMBIO (Social Innovation Management for BIOPlastics) project