Material development for user acceptance: a design-led exploration of cellulose-based materials for sustainable FMCG packaging

Plastic pollution is a major global problem and single-use plastic packaging is among the main contributors to this situation. Over the past few decades, the large amounts of plastic packaging waste combined with deficient waste management systems have turned plastic packaging into a serious environmental issue. To tackle this problem, different lines of action have been implemented: the most common being improving material efficiency and recyclability, encouraging reuse and investing in biodegradable materials. Yet, for any of these changes to make a real difference in the overall environmental impact of FMCG packaging, end-consumers play a key role. Besides being sustainable, packaging materials have to be attractive to consumers in order to be adopted by different products and brands. Therefore, it is important to understand the elements in packaging which give consumers clues to their environmental impact, as well as to the packaging’s perceived benefits. This thesis applied a modified version of the Material Driven Design (MDD) method as a framework to conduct a design-led exploratory process with the objective of developing a sustainable alternative material for FMCG plastic packaging. This approach started with desk research, practical material development and focus groups to study the existing packaging materials in the market, the cellulose-based materials strengths and users’ perception of the packaging material developed for this study. To account for regional differences, this study investigated users expectations in Finland and Brazil. Consecutively, the collected data was analyzed and interpreted to identify the material’s intangible qualities, such as meanings and values; which were then used to define guidelines for the development of final prototypes embodying the knowledge gathered through this study. Experimenting with the material and incorporating users’ perspectives into the early stages of material development enabled the final prototypes to highlight the material’s characteristics that best fulfil users’ expectations of packaging performance, appeal to their values and adjust to their cultural context. Such characteristics were defined to improve user acceptance of the material, communicate sustainability in an efficient and appealing way and consequently contribute to the material’s market success and its impact on addressing the issue of plastic pollution

Scalable method for bio-based solid foams that mimic wood

| openaire: EC/H2020/857470/EU//NOMATENMimicking natural structures allows the exploitation of proven design concepts for advanced material solutions. Here, our inspiration comes from the anisotropic closed cell structure of wood. The bubbles in our fiber reinforced foam are elongated using temperature dependent viscosity of methylcellulose and constricted drying. The oriented structures lead to high yield stress in the primary direction; 64 times larger than compared to the cross direction. The closed cells of the foam also result in excellent thermal insulation. The proposed novel foam manufacturing process is trivial to up-scale from the laboratory trial scale towards production volumes on industrial scales.Peer reviewe

Foam-formed biocomposites based on cellulose products and lignin

Funding Information: M.A., L.J., J.K., T.M. and A.P. acknowledge support from FinnCERES flagship (151830423) and Business Finland (211835). L.V. acknowledges funding from the Vilho, Yrjö, and Kalle Väisälä Foundation via personal grants. Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).Abstract: Foam-formed cellulose biocomposites are a promising technology for developing lightweight and sustainable packaging materials. In this work, we produce and characterize biocomposite foams based on methylcellulose (MC), cellulose fibers (CF), and lignin (LN). The results indicate that adding organosolv lignin to a foam prepared using MC and CF moderately increases Young’s modulus, protects the foam from the growth of Escherichia coli bacteria, and improves the hydrophobicity of the foam surface. This article concludes that organosolv lignin enhances many properties of cellulose biocomposite foams that are required in applications such as insulation, packaging, and cushioning. The optimization of the foam composition offers research directions toward the upscaling of the material solution to the industrial scale. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].Peer reviewe