Turning plant waste into sustainable cellulose packaging solutions
Technology Investment FundA Cambridge team has developed a breakthrough process to turn plant waste into high-performance, biocompostable cellulose packaging, with the potential to tackle the barriers of cost, scalability, and sustainability that have held back widespread adoption of alternatives to fossil-based plastic packaging to date and revolutionise food and consumer packaging with truly green solutions.
Fossil-based plastic packaging is a major contributor to global carbon emissions, landfill waste, and microplastic pollution. According to WRAP, the UK throws away approximately 290,000 tonnes of plastic bags and wrapping every year, with only 6% recycled.
Professors James Elliott, Ruth Cameron, Serena Best and their team at the University of Cambridge have developed a novel electrophoretic deposition (EPD) process that enables production of cellulose-based films from abundant plant waste, offering a sustainable and high-performance alternative to conventional plastics. The films are compostable, provide strong moisture and oxygen barriers, and leave no lasting waste – addressing both regulatory and market demands for greener packaging.
Whilst there are several plant-based compostable materials already available, these have not displaced fossil-based products. Widespread adoption of fossil-based packaging alternatives have been hindered by concerns over true sustainability credentials, performance limitations, scalability, and higher manufacturing costs.
The EPD process could achieve scale in production to make cellulose films, together with the properties necessary to retain product freshness, both in current cellulose markets (e.g. vegetables, dairy, and bakery products) and in new markets such as meat and fish packaging, which are not met by current cellulose packaging. The EPD technology would solve the scalability problem by enabling one-step fabrication and the process also has the potential for continuous production. This approach also removes the need for substantial water evaporation, which is time-consuming, energy-intensive, and costly. In addition to the abundant source of the waste cellulose starting material, the EPD process of manufacture does not require harsh chemicals.
“What makes this technology exciting is that it overcomes the key barriers that have held back compostable packaging: performance, scalability, and cost.”
“Our EPD process offers a realistic pathway to replacing fossil-based plastic films in food and consumer care applications.”
The project is led by Professors James Elliott, Ruth Cameron and Serena Best from the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge. It builds on the team’s extensive experience in making films from suspensions of cellulose nanofibrils and is inspired by earlier research on collagen films.
The initial research in Professor James Elliot’s group received a grant of £1 million from the Enabling Research in Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging initiative funded by NERC. The development of electrophoretic technology for cellulose, initially pioneered by Profs Ruth Cameron and Serena Best for biomedical applications, was then supported by the Technology Investment Fund from Cambridge Enterprise. Recently, the project received a £250k award from the UKRI Proof of Concept to support further commercialisation.
The team is currently building a prototype for continuous film production as well as further benchmarking and improvement of film performance. Future plans include scaling up, engaging with industry partners for user testing, and exploring licensing opportunities. The ultimate goal is to enable widespread adoption of sustainable cellulose films across food, cosmetics, and other packaging sectors.
