The tests were carried out by Novamont’s own laboratories, the HYDRA Institute for Marine Science in Germany and the University of Siena.
All three showed that Mater-Bi biodegradable fruit and vegetable bags fully biodegraded in marine environment.
Mater-Bi fruit and vegetable bags completely biodegraded in a period of 4 to 12 months depending of the type of sediment found on the seabed and its chemical and biophysical constitution.
Similar tests were carried out on control samples of polyethylene (PE) that remained intact.
The chemical substances released during the tests didn’t seem to be harmful to unicellular algae, sea urchins and sea bass.
Novamont stressed out the marine littering should not take place in the first place.
Similar communications regarding marine biodegradation had been done by Novamont in December 2017
When samples of the various types of Mater-Bi bioplastic were exposed to marine sediments, these were observed to undergo biodegradation, which was established in the laboratory by measuring the metabolism of marine microbes fed with the plastic. Biodegradation exceeded 90% (absolute or relative to the reference material) in less than one year. The biodegradation results were verified by Certiquality within the EU pilot programme “Environmental Technology Verification (ETV).
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