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Our daily life should be shaped around the certitude that there is no planet B and our natural resources are limited. Therefore, our political and moral duty is to provide a sustainable future for the next generations. Hence, several private and governmental organizations are focused on creating the best regulations¹ to ensure a greener and more sustainable future for all of us.

Single-use plastics are one of the most relevant problems of our modern way of life. Nowadays, everyone can get these objects almost everywhere because they are so practical, easy, and cheap to produce. However, in most cases, they cannot be recycled or reused and consequently represent a massive waste of our natural resources². One way to fix this urgent problem is to develop low-cost alternatives for single-use plastic disposable containers (bottles, cups, bags, packages) or hygiene products (diapers and pads) that are non-biodegradable and difficult or impossible to reuse/recycle. In addition to the push caused by all regulations, consumers and producers are becoming aware of this problem, powering the development of more sustainable alternatives. Paper/wood and cellulose-based products are popular in this path due to their origin, properties, cost, and recyclability.

It is already common to only see paper bags in shops/supermarkets and to use paper cups, plates, straws, biodegradable tissues, pads, diapers, and all other sources of packages for raw and cooked food, textiles, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and technology instead of plastic or plastic-based ones. Besides the daily use products, other sustainable and outstanding products have been catching the eye of the most concerned people, such as the paper-cored furniture from IKEA or the paper bottles from Carlsberg³ and Johnnie Walker⁴.

The future also holds some incredible opportunities to incorporate cellulose into our daily lives, as is the case with the new Japanese prototype car, built using only cellulose nanocrystals composites and measuring at half the weight of ordinary four-wheel vehicles (The Nano Cellulose Vehicle - NCV⁵). Moreover, its production process drastically reduces the carbon emissions traditionally associated with automotive manufacturing. The production of lightweight, highly resistant materials exemplifies how cellulose is entering fields where it was not imaginable a few years ago.

Paper-based electronics address the e-waste issue

Another case is the rapid development of paper-based electronics⁶, taking advantage of the characteristics of the natural fiber (flexibility, printability, and biodegradability) and its incorporation in electronic sensors, RFID tags, and energy harvesting devices, addressing the ever-growing issue of e-waste generated by a highly integrated and data-driven generation⁷.

Furthermore, becoming greener is not just the right thing to do for the planet but also an opportunity for companies to stay relevant as an example of innovation/sustainability and recruit new environmentally involved costumers⁸. The statistics demonstrate that people are willing to pay more for green products, made from natural and responsible resources, durable, easy to reuse and recycle. Therefore, turning your company greener is a smart investment that should be seen as a unique business opportunity⁹. Nature has spent millions of years perfecting cellulose, the main building block of plants and trees, and gifted us with a unique and versatile material. If we want to coexist with nature, we should follow her lead and continue the evolution of a synergic interaction between humans and our environment (remember, there is no planet B!).

AlmaScience CoLAB is taking up this challenge, developing cellulose and paper-based solutions that turn today's industry needs into tomorrow's products. We create futuristic smart products made with natural and recyclable materials like cellulose or cork in combination with functional and reactive inks, resulting in applications for smart homes and industries that a couple of years ago seemed impossible. Nowadays, we make them a reality and at the service of industries and the public at large.

Some examples are:

• PetriCell Dry™ extended biodegradable shelf-life cellulose-based culture media designed to support the growth of various microorganisms, facilitating accurate and reliable testing outcomes.
• PaperWeight Digital™: combines patented sustainable cellulose-based electronics with advanced, low-waste printing methods to create a responsive smart surface that detects pressure, weight, and touch.
• GELA delivers a fast-cooling biodegradable wrap that significantly speeds up the cooling process so a beer bottle can be cold within minutes.
• PaperRF: using a sustainable design, incorporates an impossible-to-reverse-engineer physical marker in the RFID architecture and turns it into an ultra-secure remote information carrier.

Hence, regardless of your business core, contact us to learn more about our R&D program and how we can create and grow new business opportunities together.

References

1. European Parliament, C. of the E. U. Directive (EU) 2019/904 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment. Official Journal of the European Union (2019).
2. Courtney Lindwall. Single-Use Plastics 101. Natural Resources Defense Council (2020).
3. Carlsberg makes bio-based and fully recyclable bottles available to consumers in its largest ever trial. Carlsberg Breweries A/S (2022).
4. Samatha Newby. Welcome to the Bottle of Tomorrow. Johnnie Walker (2020).
5. Reyes, A. This is Japan’s Nano Cellulose Vehicle (NCV), and it’s a supercar made of wood. DadLife (2019).
6. Engel, Y. Revolutionary Paper-based Electronics. AlmaScience CoLAB (2022).
7. Ferreira, G. et al. Smart IoT enabled interactive self-powered security tag designed with functionalized paper. Nano Energy 95, 107021 (2022).
8. What is the Business Value of Sustainability? Rainforest Alliance (2022).
9. Molenaar, J.W. and Kessler, J. J. The business benefits of using sustainability standards. ISEAL (2017).

This work had financial support in the context of the RRP - Recovery and Resilience Plan:

•  PT Smart Retail Agenda (Aviso n.º 02/C05-i01/2022, project 18)
• VIIAFOOD Agenda - Plataforma de Valorização, Industrialização e Inovação Comercial para o AgroAlimentar (Aviso n.º 02/C05-i01/2022, project 37)
• From Fossil to Forest (FF2F) Agenda (Aviso n.º 02/C05-i01/2022, project 8)
• Embalagem do Futuro Agenda (Aviso n.º 02/C05-i01/2022, project 59)