M2 Internship - Development of a new recyclable and biodegradable materials with high barrier properties
5-6 months - Start in February - The packaging sector is the one that generates the most plastic waste per year (143 million tonnes in 2019), and this poses a major environmental problem: indeed, while the majority of packaging is landfilled, a large proportion ends up in nature, particularly lightweight packaging (flexible, foam...). Yet packaging remains important for a number of reasons: product protection, consumer safety, etc. European regulations (PPWR = Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation) now require manufacturers to innovate in order to produce recyclable and/or biodegradable packaging that performs as well as plastic packaging. The aim of the Unipack project - a collaboration between LGP2 and a UK-based multinational - is to replace flexible plastic packaging with fully biosourced, recyclable and biodegradable paper packaging that performs equally well.