According to a study conducted by the UN Environment, plastic is one of the greatest environmental challenges of the 21st century.
It is estimated that every year around 13 million tons of plastic waste is deposited in nature. Another problem is that approximately 40% of all plastic produced in the last 150 years was used only once, before being discarded.
The fact that global plastics production has been in excess of 300 million metric tons since 2014 (and reached 367 million metric tons in 2020) means that urgent initiatives aimed at handling the “plastic problem” are needed.

Based on the need to handle the management of plastic and to promote approaches and methods aimed at fostering the production of bio-based plastic, BIO-PLASTICS EUROPE is preparing the book “Innovative Approaches to Handle Plastic Waste and Foster Bio-based Plastics Production”.

The book will be structured in 2 parts: part 1 focuses on plastic waste management and part 2 focuses on bio-based plastics production and use.

We are looking for papers related to innovative means to manage and prevent plastic waste taking into account health and safety standards, to end-of-life solutions as well as environmental and economic life cycle assessments of plastic products. Furthermore, we are interested on works which showcase efficient means to produce bio-based and biodegradable plastic on the one hand, and foster its reuse and recycling on the other, ensuring the safety of recycled materials for both the environment and the society.

The book will be produced as part of the World Sustainability Series, the leading peer-reviewed book series on matters related to sustainable development.

As it is a peer-reviewed publication, contributions to the book are acknowledged as high-quality academic outputs. Authors may have their contributions officially submitted for promotion and tenure purposes. For PhD students, accepted papers are an acknowledged sign of high-quality academic performance.

Expressions of interest to contribute to the book, consisting of a 300-words abstract with all contact data from the authors, should be sent to the project team at: bioplastics@ls.haw-hamburg.de by 31st August 2022. Full papers are due by 30th October 2022. Further details will be shared with the authors whose papers have been selected.