Editorial dear readers We are now more than half way through the year, and fast approaching yet another (the seventh!) Bioplastics Award. We strongly encourage all our readers to put forward what they feel are potential winners for this ‘Bioplastics Oskar’, which will be presented on November 6 th in Berlin. You can put forward your own developments or suggest outstanding developments made by others. For details see page 9, or visit our website. One of the focal topics in this issue is ‘bottle applications’, represented by, among others, the cover story about PEF as one of the promising new 100% biobased materials for bottles (and more). The other highlight is ‘bioplastics from waste streams’. We were really overwhelmed to find out that there are so many different approaches into this direction representing a serious alternative to bioplastics made from crops that can also be used for food and animal feed. We publish here articles about bioplastics made from, for instance, waste streams in the bakery business, chicken feathers, fish scales, blood meal from slaughterhouses, mango kernels, kiwi fruit residues, proteinous materials that become available as residues from biodiesel production or even bioplastics made with carbon from municipal waste water. Follow us on twitter: twitter.com/bioplasticsmag Overlapping this ‘waste’ topic to a certain extent are a number of articles in the basics section covering ‘bioplastics made from proteins’. As you read this issue of bioplastics MAGAZINE the Olympic Games in London will still be in full progress. Should you get the chance to visit London and the Games, please watch out for bioplastics products and let us know what you find. In our next issue we are planning a report on this topic. Until then, we hope you enjoy reading bioplastics MAGAZINE. Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/bioplasticsmagazine Sincerely yours Michael Thielen bioplastics MAGAZINE [04/12] Vol. 7 3
