Scion Science Leader Biopolymers & Chemicals Dr Florian Graichen talks about a novel1 new product made for the wine industry from its own waste streams.
Transcript
Dr Florian Graichen
In New Zealand, when we look at or when we think of biomass2, we pretty much think of trees but that’s not all there is. There are also different materials such as from algae3 or from horticulture, viticulture types of industries.
One way of using biomass waste is where we combine them with biopolymers through our extruder capability into filaments4. Our extruder technology has actually allowed us to use a number of biomass wastes such as grape skin. So what we are doing is compounding the skin from the wine grapes with the bioplastic5 into these net clips. And in New Zealand, you’re using nets to protect the ripening grapes, and non-degradable net clips are used for that purpose. And these nets get rolled up, the clips will break, fall to the ground and ultimately will break down into microplastics. We’ve got here now a much better option where these clips will ultimately biodegrade.
Acknowledgements
Video excerpt from Science and the Plastics Problem, directed by Shirley Horrocks and produced by Point of View Productions.
