![\"\"](\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2023\/01\/Unsplash-Spray-on-wrapper-courtesy-of-Nico-Rueda_1500x900-770x462-1.jpg\")
In 2018, the United States generated 35.7 million tons of plastics, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)<\/a>. That\u2019s the equivalent of approximately 6.1 million male elephants, each weighing six tons \u2013 or 13,000 pounds. As of 2018, over 75 percent of plastics produced in the U.S. ended up in the landfill<\/a>. And according to research published in Our World in Data, plastic packaging is the leading source of global plastic waste generation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFood waste and food safety are among the major concerns in our society, especially in the period of COVID-19,\u201d Huibin Chang, a research associate in bioengineering at Harvard University who was involved in the development of the wrapper, tells Food Tank. Chang explains that most food wrappers today are non-biodegradable, leading to environmental pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The spray on wrapper\u2019s main ingredient is pullulan<\/a>, an edible fiber that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) \u201cgenerally recognize[s] as safe\u201d (GRAS). The mixture of the biodegradable polymer and non-toxic solvents can be rinsed off with water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe goal of [the spray-on wrapper] project is to improve the shelf-life of foods with less amount [of] antimicrobial coatings using green processes,\u201d Chang tells Food Tank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Nishad Jayasundara, an environmental toxicologist at Duke University who was not involved in the study, wants to see further research into how these materials breakdown and their environmental impact. According to Jayasundra, additional research is needed<\/a> to determine whether the \u2018rinsing\u2019 method of disposal of the spray-on wrapper causes the initial nontoxic materials to break down in potentially harmful ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The spray-on wrapper is still in its early stage of technological development, but the Rutgers research team intends to scale up the process. They want to ensure that the wrapper is cost-efficient and suitable to current industry equipment standards. The researchers will then begin marketing the wrapper to companies and customers who are willing to absorb the relatively higher costs of the innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ritva Krist, Marketing Manager at German startup, traceless<\/a>, tells Food Tank that \u201cthe spray-on wrapper is a very promising invention with great potential to create an impact.\u201d Traceless creates sustainable packaging alternatives to conventional plastics and bioplastics that can be integrated into the natural material cycle. The company\u2019s goal is to replace plastic in as many products as possible to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in nature, Krist tells Food Tank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She emphasizes, however, that more than one solution is needed to minimize our plastic packaging consumption. \u201cTo see developments like the new spray-on wrapper gives us motivation and belief that together, we can create a world without pollution and waste.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Krist tells Food Tank that not all alternatives to plastic packaging are as sustainable as many companies claim, which results in confusion amongst consumers and leads to \u201cskepticism and impaired acceptance, especially for bioplastic solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A recent study conducted in the United Kingdom<\/a> assessing the impact and effectiveness of biodegradable and compostable plastics in UK home composting found that 60 percent of \u2018compostable packaging\u2019 does not fully disintegrate in home compost. Additionally, labeling plastic alternatives as \u2018sustainable\u2019 doesn\u2019t account for the resources and energy that are required to produce these forms of packaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And Beyond Plastics<\/a>, a nationwide project based at Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont reports that many compostable and bioplastics generate more greenhouse gas emissions than plastic, while often also relying on toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) \u2013 also known as \u2018forever chemicals.\u2019 Meanwhile, only 9 percent of global plastics are recycled, according to a paper published in Science Advances<\/em><\/a>. Challenges of dealing with different standards of plastic, costs associated with recycling, and degradation of quality every time plastic is melted down during the recycling process all contribute to this low rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To help consumers navigate the numerous plastic food packaging alternatives, labels, and certificates, Krist tells Food Tank that communication and marketing around new, sustainable alternatives to plastic packaging needs to be much clearer. She says this includes strengthening the multi-use of products, scaling up recycling, and improving waste collection and disposal systems. Krist also says it\u2019s important to adopt more compostable and holistically sustainable material alternatives that don\u2019t emit additional carbon dioxide when they\u2019re incinerated\u2014particularly for packaging that\u2019s non-recyclable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A team of scientists from Rutgers and Harvard University recently developed a biodegradable spray-on food wrapper. The researchers believe this wrapper can preserve the shelf-life of food, reduce food and plastic waste, and increase food safety. In 2018, the United States generated 35.7 million tons of plastics, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). That\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"The spray on wrapper\u2019s main ingredient is pullulan, an edible fiber that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) \u201cgenerally recognize[s] as safe\u201d (GRAS)","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[11270,5838,12239,11323,7105,21577],"supplier":[21578,18461,4881,3396,10635,18403],"class_list":["post-120645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-biodegradability","tag-bioeconomy","tag-compostability","tag-naturalfibers","tag-packaging","tag-wrapper","supplier-bennington-college","supplier-beyond-plastic","supplier-duke-university","supplier-harvard-university","supplier-rutgers-university","supplier-traceless-materials-gmbh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120645"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=120645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}