Report Demo Forest goes
Report Demo Forest goes bio Belgium’s forestry event uses compostable foodservice disposables During the event MJ Pack conducted a product match, replacing polystyrene chip trays with Vegware bagasse takeaway containers and single-use plastic cutlery with its plant-based CPLA and wooden options. Alongside Vegware hot and cold cups, soup containers and PLA bags, reusable drinking vessels were also used. The event’s bin signage provided visual cues on what to place in the food waste and compostables bins. The Demo Forest event organisers appreciated working with Vegware, due to their deep set of composability certification and wide product range. The used Vegware was sorted manually on-site, to ensure only good quality organic matter was sent to the waste facility. In 2019, leading Belgian forestry event, Demo Forest, joined their local circular economy thanks to Vegware plant-based compostable catering disposables. Demo Forest is a two-day event in Bertrix, Belgium that showcases sustainable forest practices hosting over 200 exhibitors and 50,000 attendees across the 120-hectare site, and composted 420 kg of used Vegware and food waste. This was a first for an event of this magnitude in Belgium. To further reduce their environmental impact, the event organisers chose Edinburgh, Scotland based Vegware compostable foodservice packaging across the site – which can be recycled together with food waste – and was turned into quality compost after use. Vegware foodservice disposables are made from plants, using renewable, reclaimed or recycled materials, including PLA, cellulose based Natureflex films from Futamura (UK), Bagasse, palmleaves sustainably sourced paper and cardboard and others. They are designed to be commercially composted with food waste after use, turning into soil improver for local use. The initiative to compost the used Vegware came from Johnny Macoir, MD of the packaging company MJ Pack (Sainte-Ode, Belgium), who supplied the compostable Vegware packaging. Macoir approached Demo Forest’s patron Alexandre Devolf in May 2018. Macoir explains, “I realised that by using compostable packaging, the catering stands would reduce general waste by 300kg. Devolf shared my vision to bring further sustainability practices to the event and was up for the challenge.” Devolf adds, “As a leading environmental event, Demo Forest always wants to evolve our eco-friendly strategies and adopt new practices to set the gold standard in the industry. We were delighted to replace our conventional catering disposables with compostables, helping us all participate in our local circular economy.” Over 20,000 items of used Vegware catering disposables, plus food waste, were recovered and transported by CETT Rochefort to the waste facility IDELUX Environment at AIVE, Tenneville,Belgium. Here, through a process of anaerobic digestion and composting, Demo Forest’s biowaste was transformed into green energy, to produce renewable electricity and renewable heat, as well as 420kg quality compost, both for local use. In order to obtain an optimal sorting quality (100% organic and compostable waste), a mobile sorting machine, provided by CETT Rochefort, was on site to manually sort and verify the compostable waste for contamination. This is just the first sustainable step, and the team are determined to build on these results in 2021. MT www.vegware.com | www.demoforest.be/en 32 bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/20] Vol. 15
02-03 Sep 2020 Cologne, Germany organized by Register now, and benefit from our Early Bird discount until February 29/2020 Call for papers now open! and Jan Ravenstijn www.pha-world-congress.com Platinum Sponsor Gold Sponsor Bronze Sponsor Supported by PHA (Poly-Hydroxy-Alkanoates) is a family of biobased polyesters. Examples for such Polyhydroxyalkanoates are PHB, PHV, PHBV, PHBH and many more. That’s why we speak about the PHA platform. Depending on the type of PHA, they can be used for applications in films and rigid packaging, biomedical applications, automotive, consumer electronics, appliances, toys, glues, adhesives, paints, coatings, fibers for woven and non-woven and inks. So PHAs cover a broad range of properties and applications. Also depending on the type, most PHAs are biodegradable in a wide range of environments, such as industrial and home composting, anaerobic digestion (AD), in soil, freshand even seawater. As PHAs are gaining more and more interest, bioplastics MAGAZINE and Jan Ravenstijn are now organizing the 2 nd PHA-platform World Congress on 2-3 September 2020 in Cologne / Germany. bioplastics MAGAZINE [01/20] Vol. 15 33
