Bioelements and Michigan State University Test Biodegradation for Sustainable Packaging

Bioelements Group, a leading sustainable packaging company in Latin America and the United States, has partnered with Michigan State University’s (MSU) School of Packaging to test biodegradation for sustainable packaging.
 
The partnership is a project that will measure the biodegradation of Bioelements’ sustainable packaging. It involves examining a sample of Bio E-8i film and its biodegradation under composting conditions in laboratory applications. The studies will focus on aerobic composting according to the ISO 14855 standard.
 
MSU will provide Bioelements with a biodegradation curve to understand how the materials behave during the biodegradation process under simulated industrial composting and how long it takes for them to fully biodegrade in this environment.
 
“This type of study allows us to obtain highly reliable data from a prestigious university,” said Ignacio Parada, CEO, and founder of Santiago, Chile-based Bioelements. “Such work is important because it allows us to improve and apply academic knowledge to a real product used every day, and that is very beneficial.”
 
Non-biodegradable plastics which take up to 400 years to degrade. According to Bioelements, Bio E-8i film can be broken down by fungi and other microorganisms in an average of up to 20 months. Bio-E8i packaging is durable, attractive, and complies with the regulations of each country where it operates and may reduce carbon footprints by up to 60%.
 
“MSU’s School of Packaging is excited about this new collaboration and looks forward to advancing the development of home and industrial compostable packaging,” said Rafael Auras, Ph.D., Professor, Amcor Endowed Chair in Packaging Sustainability at the MSU School of Packaging. “This partnership aims to develop further packaging materials to be recovered with organic waste when contaminated.”
 
This is the first kind of partnership in the United States for Bioelements, which has similar arrangements with research institutions in South America.