In the promotional product industry, there is a huge push to innovate how we produce plastics owing to the impact they have on the environment. One team of Dutch scientists have come up with a unique biopolymer that might well replace plastic as we know it AND help fight greenhouse gases to boot.

Eco-Friendly Plastics for Better Products in the Future

Eric Klarenbeek and Maartje Droshave spent over three years perfecting their algae-based biopolymer which they believe may eventually take over from regular plastics. Their goal is to produce a polymer based on the algae that could be used to create things in-store and on-demand, which would be an incredible innovation for promotional products as well as local suppliers.

While the manufacture of synthetic plastics takes a huge toll on the environment, the cost of shipping plastics around the world is also incredibly high (both money and ecology-wise because a lot of fossil fuels are used). With this new biopolymer, the need for transport would be cut down considerably as the ingredients in the polymer (including mycelium, cocoa bean shells, potato starch, and algae) are organic items that can be replenished easily on a local level. Best of all, because algae help absorb CO2 an opting to use these polymers over standard plastics may actively help reduce the impact of greenhouse gases on the environment.

While we're still a long way off having a 3D print shop around every corner that can manufacture furniture and merchandise from these bioplastics, perhaps down the track, this will be one future method for helping to preserve our environment as well as provide promotional plastics for all manner of purposes.

First spotted here: https://www.fastcodesign.com/90154210/the-creators-of-this-algae-plastic-want-to-start-a-maker-revolution