{"id":176597,"date":"2026-05-11T07:23:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T05:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=176597"},"modified":"2026-05-05T12:51:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T10:51:57","slug":"eu-single-use-plastics-directive-natural-polymers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/eu-single-use-plastics-directive-natural-polymers\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Single Use Plastics Directive &amp; Natural Polymers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"211\" height=\"243\" src=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2026\/05\/Bildschirmfoto-2026-05-05-um-12.47.26.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-176620\" srcset=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2026\/05\/Bildschirmfoto-2026-05-05-um-12.47.26.png 211w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2026\/05\/Bildschirmfoto-2026-05-05-um-12.47.26-130x150.png 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 211px) 100vw, 211px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>GO!PHA and the nova-Institut conducted a review of how the term \u201cnatural polymers\u201d is defined in EU policy and scientific literature. The analysis shows that while science generally considers polymers produced through biological processes, such as fermentation, to be natural when they are identical to those found in nature, current policy interpretations often focus on where polymerization occurs. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This origin-based approach can create barriers for nature-identical materials and hinder innovation. The report therefore proposes three pathways to better align policy with science: revising the definition of natural polymers, adopting a criteria-based approach that evaluates materials based on environmental performance such as biodegradability, and introducing a category for \u201cnature-identical\u201d polymers to ensure fair regulatory treatment of bio-manufactured materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:13px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gopha.org\/s\/2026-03-GOPHA-A-Review-of-Natural-Polymers-in-Policy-tpra.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Download document<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:13px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GO!PHA and the nova-Institut conducted a review of how the term \u201cnatural polymers\u201d is defined in EU policy and scientific literature. The analysis shows that while science generally considers polymers produced through biological processes, such as fermentation, to be natural when they are identical to those found in nature, current policy interpretations often focus on [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":176620,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Opportunities to redefine natural polymers for a competitive European Bioeconomy","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[11270,17299,6026,16171],"supplier":[16068],"class_list":["post-176597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-biodegradability","tag-biomanufacturing","tag-biopolymers","tag-fermentation","supplier-gopha"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176597","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=176597"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176627,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176597\/revisions\/176627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176597"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=176597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}