{"id":156829,"date":"2025-01-24T07:29:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T06:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=156829"},"modified":"2025-01-22T15:09:56","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T14:09:56","slug":"amazon-is-trialling-bio-based-delivery-bags-in-spain-whilst-developing-new-technologies-to-recycle-bio-based-materials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/amazon-is-trialling-bio-based-delivery-bags-in-spain-whilst-developing-new-technologies-to-recycle-bio-based-materials\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon is trialling bio-based delivery bags in Spain whilst developing new technologies to recycle bio-based materials"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\u00a9 Amazon<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Amazon is starting to pack and deliver groceries for customers in Spain using bio-based bags made from vegetable materials produced in Europe, including corn starch and vegetable oils, which can one day be recycled into new bags. The first trials of the new bags, developed by materials experts at Italian company Novamont, part of Versalis (Eni), with support from materials scientists at Amazon, are being piloted for Amazon Fresh orders in Valencia.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food safe, strong and weather-resistant<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Amazon\u2019s bio-based bags are durable, food safe and weather-resistant. Because they are safe for food, this new material (Mater-biTM<\/sup>) could progressively replace fossil-based plastics used by food retailers and manufacturers. Their biodegradability also means they do not generate any microplastics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cOur new Amazon Fresh bio-based bags provide protection against spills and condensation to keep grocery orders safe for our customers, and at the same time are less impactful for the planet because they are made from renewable, food safe materials derived from plants, like corn starch and vegetable oils,\u201d said Alan Jacobsen, Amazon’s Materials & Energy Sciences Director.<\/strong> \u201cUnlike most petroleum-based plastic bags, these materials have the potential to be more efficiently recycled, while also being able to naturally degrade in a composting environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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\"Bio-based<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Right now, Amazon Fresh bio-based material bags handed back to drivers in Valencia can be mechanically recycled \u2013 which means the material can be turned into pellets by local recycling partners, and given to Novamont to make new bags once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cExperimenting with Amazon is an exceptional opportunity to showcase packaging solutions made from our family of Mater-Bi materials, all of which are biodegradable and compostable, and wholly or partly derived from biomass,\u201d said Catia Bastioli, CEO of Novamont (Versalis, Eni)<\/strong>. \u201cThis is a unique opportunity to test their effectiveness and multiple recycling options in terms of resource regeneration and certified environmental performance.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Already, the majority (75%) of Amazon customers in Valencia who have received the bio-based bags say they are pleased with the new packaging. Respondents say they like the new bags because they are biodegradable and bio-based, or because they can reuse them for other purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazon will use the results of this trial to assess whether these new bio-based bags can be used on a broader scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Amazon is working to \u2018close the loop\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In parallel to the Amazon Fresh and Novamont pilot in Valencia, Amazon\u2019s research scientists are also working with the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s BOTTLE Consortium led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), to develop a new low-temperature recycling process to recycle bio-based, biodegradable materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThis process breaks down bio-based, biodegradable materials into basic building blocks that can be repolymerised back into new materials without degrading the material properties,\u201d Jacobsen<\/strong> added. \u201cInstead of only having composting as an end-of-life solution for these materials, this new process enables biodegradable plastics to be efficiently recycled, keeping these materials in use and reducing the need for additional raw materials.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The start-up EsterCycle \u2013 which uses technology developed by NREL and Amazon – has the goal of scaling this new technology beyond the lab, enabling bio-based, biodegradable plastics to be more widely recycled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delivery bags today, food containers tomorrow<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The next-generation of bio-based and biodegradable materials in the packaging sector, especially in the food and grocery industry, can enable a faster transition to a circular economy, helping to avoid millions of tons of plastic food and drink packaging. To improve the resource efficiency and circularity of the packaging sector, Amazon and Novamont are developing and testing various food safe bio-based solutions for advanced packaging applications, such as yoghurt cups, coffee pods and containers for fruit and meats, in a project co-financed by Circular Biobased Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Packaging with a lower environmental impact<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As well as developing and testing next-generation packaging which is safe and circular by design, Amazon is committed to reducing packaging wherever possible. This has resulted in more than 1 billion of our shipments since 2019 being delivered without any added delivery packaging at all<\/a> in Europe through a programme called Ships In Product Packaging<\/a>. Since 2015, our packaging reduction programmes have enabled us to avoid more than 3 million metric tons of packaging materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When additional Amazon packaging is required to ship a product, we use paper-based packaging that can be easily recycled in customers\u2019 household recycling. In Europe, all of our delivery packaging\u2014the boxes, bags and envelopes that we pack products in to deliver to our customers\u2014is recyclable<\/a>. This includes delivery packaging for items sold directly by Amazon, and by third-party selling partners that use Fulfilment by Amazon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amazon is starting to pack and deliver groceries for customers in Spain using bio-based bags made from vegetable materials produced in Europe, including corn starch and vegetable oils, which can one day be recycled into new bags. The first trials of the new bags, developed by materials experts at Italian company Novamont, part of Versalis (Eni), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":156851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"New food-safe bio-based bags for Amazon Fresh are made from vegetable materials produced in Europe, including corn starch and vegetable oils, and protect products against rain and spillages","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572,17143],"tags":[11270,5847,12239,7105,12383,12679],"supplier":[9175,16972,19472,25550,12433,371,509,11236],"class_list":["post-156829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","category-recycling","tag-biodegradability","tag-bioplastics","tag-compostability","tag-packaging","tag-plasticbags","tag-recyclability","supplier-amazon","supplier-bottle-consortium","supplier-circular-bio-based-europe-joint-undertaking-cbe-ju","supplier-estercycle","supplier-mater-biotech-spa","supplier-national-renewable-energy-laboratory-nrel","supplier-novamont","supplier-u-s-department-of-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156829","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=156829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156829"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=156829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}