EU project BioBoard: increasing recyclability of coated paper and cardboard
The EU-funded BioBoard project promotes the material recyclability or compostability of coated paper and cardboard and derived laminates. The BioBoard barrier coating, which will be developed by this European project, will be easily biodegradable and moreover could be easily washed off from the substrate where it is applied using enzymatic detergents. The coating system is based on the renewable raw material derived from agrofood waste. BioBoard aims to produce packaging materials from the extrusion of coating paper, paperboard and cardboard. The base material for the coating will be innovative formulations based on proteins such as whey and residues from potato. Indeed, as a by-product coming from cheese production, still 40-50% of the 50 million tons of whey produced annually in Europe is discarded, while about 65,000 tonnes of dried potato juice protein and 140,000 tonnes of dried potato pulp produced annually within the EU could be available for new valorisations (News Release IRIS, 16 May 2013).