Biodegradable polymers have attracted extensive attention as an alternative to non-biodegradable polymer materials in food packaging applications to tackle the problem of accumulating plastic waste. However, the term “biodegradable” may lead to confusion among consumers and other stakeholders. The simplified and clear distinction among the terms that are often used interchangeably needs to be understood in the first instance. With biodegradable plastics, as the world moves away from a linear system toward a circular economy, just like conventional fossil-based plastics, the end of life of biodegradable plastics is an aspect that needs to be managed. This talk will help to broaden the current understanding of the role of biodegradable plastics in the circular system and underlie filler-polymer-biodegradation relationship by proposing approaches.

About the speaker: Ilke Uysal Ünalan has been a Tenure Track Assistant Professor in the Department of Food Science at Aarhus University since 2020.  She was previously working as a postdoctoral scientist at the School of Packaging, Michigan State University on polymer processing and characterization, and biodegradation, and at the Laboratory of Food and Soft Materials of ETH Zurich where she focused on the milk protein fibrils-graphene-based polymeric membranes for food packaging applications.

Her research is focused on understanding the mechanisms underlying the `structure-properties-processing` relationships of polymer composites and investigating sustainable strategies to achieve the full potential of materials for food packaging applications.