Blog
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Posted: June 10, 2024Categories: Environmental Impact
At Biobag, our dedication to sustainability and social responsibility has always been at the core of our business. We are therefore excited to share a milestone that underscores our commitment: Biobag Group has been independently verified, as part of Novamont Group’s certification, through the B-Corp Impact Assessment (BIA) with a score of 86.3.
Achieving this signifies our high standards in social and environmental performance. The B-Corp certification is globally recognized and awarded to companies that demonstrate a strong commitment to creating positive impact for their employees, communities, and the environment. This certification is a testament to our ongoing efforts to make a positive impact on the planet and within our communities. As part of Novamont Group’s certification, we align with their aggregated score of 118.8.
We are proud of this achievement and excited about the journey ahead. This milestone is not just a recognition of our past efforts but a commitment to
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Posted: April 24, 2024
What’s the problem? Conventional plastic is a relatively cheap material to produce, and has amazing functionalities. If handled 100% correct and reused in all eternity, it probably wouldn’t be a problem. Human habit is the problem. An easy fix, you might think, and in theory, it is. In reality however… not so much. As of right now, we only recycle a disappointing 9%, and so we’re simply too far away from that ‘solution’. Human behaviour is not adapting fast enough.
With ‘the power of habit’ against us, it is naïve of us to think, that we can persuade the entire world population, to make sure no plastic is left in nature or even allowed to break in two. On the contrary, it would be much ‘easier’ to replace the conventional plastics, where possible, with certified compostable plastics because they leave no harmful residue behind. Of course, it still needs to be handled and disposed correctly and no plastic should ever end up in nature. Compostable plastic alternatives have the same featur
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Posted: April 24, 2024Categories: Organic waste, Waste solutions, Environmental Impact, Bioeconomy, Soil health, Microplastics
Here is the issue.
If we collect organic waste in the normal bin with other residual waste, it goes to an incineration facility to be burnt or – in some countries – left in a landfill to rot. Burning it will release dioxins to the atmosphere. Leaving it in landfills will produce large amounts of methane gas into the open air. A gas, that is 28 times as damaging to the atmosphere as CO2.
Consequently, both are bad solutions, but worse so, they both completely overlook the potency and value that lies within the food waste itself.Avoiding the heavy pollution is therefore one thing, but it’s quite another thing to recover the valuable resources that lie within the waste. We can actually use this waste to give clean nutrition back into the Bioeconomy, but for that to be an option, we need to use a different waste bag.
If sorted and collected separately, organic waste can be converted into biogas or nutritious compost to grow new crops in and spread on the f
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Posted: April 04, 2024
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)3,4 the entire top layer of soil could be gone in 60 years, if the current rate of degradation continues. And with about a third of the world’s soil already degraded, we sort of have to do something quickly. Each year, approximately a billion tons of soil is lost due to erosion, and soil now suffers from loss of organic material, pollution, loss of biodiversity, salinization, overexploitation, and discharge of pollutants. Healthy soil would however strengthen our resilience and vulnerability to climate change, and so we need to focus on how to GIVE back to the Bioeconomy, and not only TAKE from it, in order to achieve a healthier soil.
A great contributing solution is actually within reach. Literally. It just so happens that every year, you and I (and the rest of humankind) waste around 1.3 billion tonnes of food – leftovers, scraps, fruit peels, vegetable skins, etc. This represents about one-third of
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Posted: December 06, 2023
Research confirms that we are already consuming microplastics, and the recent discovery of these particles in the livers of fish suggests that they can migrate from the digestive system to other parts of the body. The latest studies even indicate that microscopic plastic particles end up in our lungs, settling or penetrating further into our bloodstream. The full extent of the damage is not yet fully understood, but surely it isn’t good.
The ongoing use of conventional plastic Mulch Film seems odd to us, when we know the drastic impact of microplastics on soil use and balance - and when we already know how to produce an alternative that leave zero microplastics behind. Biobag offers a fully compostable and biodegradable Mulch Film that is certified OK biodegradable SOIL. It has the exact same functionalities as the environmentally damaging conventional version, but WITHOUT the negative environmental consequences of persistent microplastics.
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Posted: December 06, 2023Categories: Organic waste, Waste solutions, Environmental Impact, Bioeconomy, Soil health, Microplastics
1. Avoid microplastics in the field
Biobags are certified fully compostable and will always disappear within a brief period, in contrast to conventional plastics which will enter our environment for at least hundred years and circle around as damaging microplastics. When food waste is collected in a biobag destined for biogas production or turned into compost for agricultural land, Biobags will not leave microplast in the soil. The conditions under which the -
Posted: March 09, 2023
Feathers and film
“Feathers are an incredible natural material, and we were thinking about how we could harness some of the existing properties and use them for useful things in our societies and economies. They could be used in the fight to avoid the use of plastic” CEO and co-founder of Aeropowder Ryan Robinson explains.
“We started with a practical mindset. The big picture question was initially: can we make a feather-based product, and will it insulate? To be honest, at the beginning the outer lining was not as critical. The insulation performance was the main thing we needed to understand. So, at first, we used a standard polyethylene liner – conventional and commonly used all around the world for many applications.”
Once Aeropowder figured those first questions out, they asked themselves: How do we move away from the traditional plastic material and move on to better alternatives? “This is when we came across the film from B
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Posted: January 31, 2023Categories: Organic waste, Waste solutions, Environmental Impact, Bioeconomy, Soil health, Microplastics
How can bioplastic contribute to healthy soil?
We think it is essential that the EU, in its Soil Strategy, includes compostable plastic as an important factor in the restoration and maintenance of healthy soil. Collecting and composting the huge amounts of organic waste that we humans generate is a sustainable, good, and meaningful way to improve our soil. Giving all this organic material back to the soil will improve the soil quality. It will give back valuable nutrients and microorganisms, so that the soil becomes healthier and more resistant to, for example, drought and heavy rain. It will also maintain the soil fertile for growing food in a healthy and valuable circular economy. When sorting and collecting food waste, studies in several EU countries show that if sorted food waste is collected in bio bags, the quantity as well as the quality of the collected food waste is increased. The more food waste collected and used to improve our soil, the better.
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Posted: March 09, 2022
The report of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations assessed the sustainability of agricultural plastic products. In this report the United Nations recommends the replacement of non-biodegradable, conventional plastic with biodegradable and bio-based plastic which is an important recognition of the environmental benefits of bioplastic products.
The study was done by a qualitative risk assessment focusing on 13 specific agricultural products used in a range of different value chains. The study recommends the use of biodegradable, bio-based plastics instead of traditional plastic for mulch films, fishing gear, polymer coated fertilizers, tree guards and shelters, plant support twines, and pesticide impregnated fruit protection bags. Read the full report here.
With mulch filming representing the largest part of agricultural plastic applications, the questions arise why? Mulching films has several
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Posted: February 01, 2022
An other recent study published in the journal, Environmental Science and Technology, concludes that an average person eats approx. 50,000 particles of microplastics a year and breathes in about the same amount. The harm caused to humans by inhaling microplastics is not yet known. But experts say that the particularly harmful aspect of microplastics is that they can carry other airborne pollutants into our lungs and blood streams. These microplastic particles can cause cardiovascular disease, cancer and affect the immune and nervous systems.
We must all make an effort to minimize plastic in nature
The most obvious action is, of course, to not throw plastic away in the countryside, but there are also other ways to avoid both plastic and microplastic pollution. We can think about minimizing the use of unnecessary plastics such as straws, shopping bags, cosmetics with plastic bits and water bottles, etc.
At the same time, we must replace conventional