CREATING THE FRAMEWORK FOR A WIDESPREAD USE OF BIODEGRADABLE POLYMERS(STANDARDIZATION, LABELING, LEGISLATION, BIOWASTE MANAGEMENT)

According to a request from the Federal Government, biodegradable mate rials and packagings made of such have been developed. That is, for th e first time a material group has been developed with special respect to waste management properties. They offer a nature-like life cycle, a voiding the accumulation of waste. From a technical point of view, the y are ready to be used and can even be used in the pretentious field o f food packaging. From the aspect of waste management, a joint compost ing together with biological waste seems possible. According to the Eu ropean and German Packaging Directive this would be material recovery. In Germany, the wide use of biodegradable packagings had initial prob lems due to lack of a framework, above all waste management regulation s. The lack of a collection system according to Section 6 (3) Packagin g Directive utilizing biodegradability was particularly impeding. Prog ress was achieved by the activities of IBAW (Interessengemeinschaft bi ologisch abbaubare Werkstoffe e.V.). The planned amendment of the Pack aging Directive, however, offers a framework suitable for the establis hment of such a system. Further improvements were achieved recently in standardization, certification and labelling. By that, the innovation has made large progress on its way from the laboratory to the market. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Limited. All rights reserved.