BioPackMan: biodegradable packaging materials advancing circularity, sustainability and eco-innovation

BioPackMan aims to design and develop a new generation of biodegradable polymer materials (BDPMs)—including PHAs, PBS/PBSA copolymers, PLA-based blends, and sustainable additives—to produce high-performance flexible and rigid packaging for the food, home-care and personal-care sectors. The project adopts a full value-chain approach involving material producers, compounders, packaging converters, and end users, ensuring that newly developed BDPMs achieve comparable performance to fossil-based plastics, while remaining recyclable and biodegradable across relevant end-of-life (EoL) scenarios. This includes the development of synergistic biobased compounds, coatings, digital tools, and advanced processing technologies. BioPackMan targets semi-industrial validation, producing six packaging demonstrators and integrating a Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) framework throughout the entire development process.

Context

The transition toward a circular and climate-neutral economy is driving major changes in the packaging sector, with EU strategies such as the Green Deal, the Circular Economy Action Plan and the Plastics Strategy setting ambitious requirements for reducing fossil-based plastics, increasing recyclability, and supporting safe and sustainable material alternatives. Biodegradable polymer materials (BDPMs) represent a promising response to these demands, but they still present certain scientific and technical challenges that limit their current level of adoption. These relate mainly to the need for further optimization of mechanical properties, barrier performance, and a clearer understanding of their biodegradation behaviour across different environments.

The industrial adoption of biodegradable materials is limited by fragmented value chains, the absence of predictive digital tools, and limited consumer acceptance of emerging biodegradable materials. Overcoming these obstacles requires an integrated, interdisciplinary approach that aligns materials development with EU sustainability expectations, while ensuring performance, circularity and safety throughout the entire product life cycle.

BIOPACKMAN addresses these gaps by advancing the development of high-performance BDPMs based on Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) principles and by strengthening the entire packaging value chain —from materials formulation to processing, end-of-life management and digital prediction tools. Through its multidisciplinary consortium and semi-industrial demonstrations, the project aims to deliver biodegradable packaging solutions that meet industry needs, support environmental policy objectives, and contribute to Europe’s transition toward safer and more circular packaging systems.

Summary and general objectives

The overarching aim of BioPackMan is to advance circular, biodegradable packaging by developing high-performance BDPMs, integrating them into real packaging applications, and validating their safety, performance, recyclability and biodegradability. The project seeks to demonstrate that BDPMs can reach fossil-based benchmark quality, while enabling reliable end-of-life routes and supporting environmental goals.

Key general objectives include:

• Creating biodegradable and recyclable polymer formulations with tailored mechanical, thermal, chemical and barrier properties for different applications.
• Developing sustainable additives, coatings and functional nanofeatures sourced from plant and food by-products.
• Implementing a biodegradation-as-a-system-property approach spanning material design, processing and product form.
• Demonstrating innovative processing technologies, covering compounding, film production, rigid packaging, printing, lamination and advanced laser marking.
• Providing digital tools such as ML-driven material design models, lifetime prediction systems, and in silico QSTR/QSBR models to support material formulation, ecotoxicity assessment, biodegradation rates and EoL prediction.
• Implementation of SSbD framework from design stages to ensure safety, circularity and sustainability of the new materials, and further methodology refinement for biodegradable packaging sector.

Specific objectives

The project is structured into 8 work packages (WPs), each of which addresses a specific issue related to its implementation:

• WP1 – Digital toolset for virtual screening, accelerated discovery & design of tailored BDPMs Developing a digital platform integrating value-chain analysis, ML-driven polymer informatics, QSAR/QSBR models, biodegradation pathway modelling and shelf-life prediction to support BDPM selection and EoL decisions.
• WP2 – Tailored BDPM development

Producing new PHAs, PBS copolyesters and PLA grades, develops sustainable biobased additives, evaluates their physicochemical and first-tier biodegradability properties, and prepares technical guidelines for scaling up the newly developed polymers and processes.

• WP3 – Compounds & semi-finished formats of BDPMs

Developing biodegradable and recyclable materials and coatings for flexible and rigid packaging, formulates at least four compounds with performance comparable to PP/PE/PET, validates biodegradability and recyclability at coupon level, and delivers scale-up guidelines for materials production.

• WP4 – Innovative packaging design & processing technologies

Scaling up BDPM production at pilot level, demonstrates materials and forming technologies on case-study parts, tests prototypes under relevant operational conditions, integrates EoL solutions into design, assesses technological developments, produces six end-use prototypes, and creates durable, environmentally friendly labels.

• WP5 – Demonstration and validation of BDPM packaging products

Demonstration and benchmarks BDPMs through six packaging demonstrators, tests third-tier and product-level biodegradation in multiple environments, determines degradation rates, verifies biodegradability for intended EoL routes, checks certification compliance, and validates mechanical, chemical and enzymatic recycling.

• WP6 – Safety, environmental & economic sustainability assessment of developed materials & products

Implements SSbD framework with a life-cycle and multicriteria perspective, providing SSbD guidance aligned with EU SSbD initiatives, including hazard and risk assessment, as well as environmental, social and economic sustainability by means of LCA/LCC/s-LCA and TEA. This work is aligned with EU SSbD and environmental policies, and contributes to standardisations and labelling of biodegradable solutions.

• WP7 – Dissemination, Communication, Exploitation Activities and Societal engagement

Executes a communication strategy for diverse audiences, disseminates project outputs, maximises exploitation and competitiveness, develops business plans, increases societal acceptance and stakeholder awareness, engages with EU initiatives, and provides training activities.

• WP8 – Project Management and Coordination

Ensures smooth project implementation, communication with the EC, coordinated management of all knowledge and activities, and proper handling of financial, legal, gender, ethics, risk and compliance obligations.

Project Consortium

• BioPackMan brings together 19 partners from 10 European countries, including:
  • ETHNICON METSOVION POLYTECHNION (Greece) – Coordinator
  • AIMPLAS – ASOCIACION DE INVESTIGACION DE MATERIALES PLASTICOS Y CONEXAS (Spain)
  • BEWARRANT (Belgium)
  • BIOPLASTECH LTD (Ireland)
  • BIO-MI DRUSTVO S OGRANICENOM ODGOVORNOSCU ZA PROIZVODNJU, ISTRAZIVANJEI RAZVOJ (Croatia)
  • LOGOPLASTE INNOVATION LAB LDA (Portugal)
  • ITENE – INSTITUTO TECNOLOGICO DEL EMBALAJE, TRANSPORTE Y LOGISTICA (Spain)
  • NOVAMONT SPA (Italy)
  • ITAINNOVA – INSTITUTO TECNOLOGICO DE ARAGON (Spain)
  • BOLTON MANITOBA S.P.A. (Italy)
  • YIOTIS ANONIMOS EMPORIKI & VIOMIXANIKI ETAIREIA (Greece)
  • FUTERRO (Belgium)
  • AIMEN – ASOCIACION DE INVESTIGACION METALURGICA DEL NOROESTE (Spain)
  • NTNU – NORGES TEKNISK-NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET (Norway)
  • TALLINN UNIVERSITY (Estonia)
  • EXUS SOFTWARE MONOPROSOPI ETAIRIA PERIORISMENIS EVTHINIS (Greece)
  • AHSA – ATHANASIOS EL. HATZOPOULOS VIOMICHANIA EPEXERGASIAS CHARTOU AE (Greece)
  • UNIVERZITA TOMASE BATI VE ZLINE (Czechia)
  • ARISTOTELIO PANEPISTIMIO THESSALONIKIS (Greece)

ITENE’s Role

In the BioPackMan project, ITENE will lead the development and implementation of the Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) framework and coordinating the safety, risk and regulatory compliance activities associated with the new biodegradable materials and packaging solutions. Through its leadership in several tasks within WP6, ITENE ensures that the new biodegradable solutions for packaging products meet EU safety requirements and align with safety and circular economy principles. In this context, ITENE will safeguard human and environmental health by conducting early toxicity and exposure evaluations, establishing safety criteria for all newly developed materials.

Moreover, ITENE will design and optimise bio-based lignocellulosic additives to improve the mechanical and thermal performance of biodegradable LDPMs used in packaging, while ensuring that these additives remain sustainable, compatible with recycling processes and aligned with environmental requirements. The biodegradation behaviour of these materials will be analysed through pathway studies and a multi-tier testing approach, including contribution to in silico tools design, and leading the biodegradability experimental testing across different environments, such as soil or landfill conditions, freshwater and marine systems, and industrial composting scenarios.