The Key To Plastic Recycling is Sustainable Food packaging.

Owing to the multilayer packaging that protects the food and beverage industry from contamination, the recycling process for sustainable food packaging is being challenged more than ever.

FREMONT, CA: Effective packaging is necessary to preserve the food or beverage from contamination and to retain the product's desired quality. However, as technology advances, this packaging now comes in multi-layered containers, making recycling more challenging. While the change in lifestyle in response to the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way foods are promoted and concertized, it is alarming that Malaysia had high yearly per capita plastic use in 2019, a study commissioned by WWF reports. Plastic garbage disposal recently outpaces plastic breakdown by a factor of ten. It leads to initiatives to reduce plastic, such as recycling, which is critical. Even though recycling plastic food packaging is quite expensive and has a greater carbon footprint since it needs pre-processing to remove food remaining post recycling. Undoubtedly, virgin plastic is lesser expensive and easier to manage. As a result, novel packaging materials consisting of sustainable and biodegradable materials are needed to optimize plastic pollution: Biopolymer-based packaging film can help resolve this issue. It is recommended as an alternative packaging to lessen global dependency on fossil fuel resources for packaging as it has sustainable raw materials and simplified end-of-life disposal.

Dr Thoo Yin Yin, a lecturer at Monash University Malaysia School of Science, said their research study generates biopolymer film sustainable raw resources, monopolizing the green and sustainable strategy in food production. The approach offers a substitute for one-time-use plastic food packaging and may be used to package fruits, dried, oil, and other materials. It's non-toxic and easy to utilize as a substitute packaging material to keep food fresh and prevent rotting. Besides, the excellent biodegradability makes it easy to dispose of after use. Moreover, because the food processing sector accounts for 10 per cent of Malaysia's manufacturing output, this idea could also give a long-term alternative packaging solution for the local food processing industry.