The workshop

After completing this workshop you will be able to determine whether your product can be packaged in biopolymers and what the advantages and disadvantages are if you choose to do so. You will learn about biopolymers, how they can be used and what the future developments are in this field.

Recognition
This workshop is CEDEO-certified, as are the other NVC courses. The NVC is also ‘recognized service provider’ in Flanders concerning the pillar Education.

For whom?

The workshop is mainly intended for packaging and product developers, quality controllers, buyers and vendors of packaging.

Programme

The workshop covers the following subjects:

• Introduction biopolymers
• Origin of biopolymers
• Waste management of biopolymers
• Technical characteristics (e.g. barrier properties, processing)
• Use of biopolymers in packaging
• The latest and future developments

Case studies
During the workshop you put theory into practice. By working through the case studies you learn to analyse various aspects of biopolymer packaging, like:

• Analysis of materials
• Analysis of functionalities and critical success factors
• Analysis of packaging and new packaging concepts

Tutor

Our tutors are professionally active in this specific field, which enables all the newest issues and developments to be quickly incorporated into the course programme.

Karin Molenveld is Project Manager and Senior Researcher biobased products at Wageningen UR Food and Biobased Research. She conducts research on biobased materials and works on their market development. Her research themes are:

• Biobased plastics: Alternative raw materials, new biopolymers and building blocks, (new) polymer additives, plastic processing and extending the technical possibilities of biopolymers
• Biotechnological production routes of polymers,(PHA, PLA, polypeptides)
• Biological degradation (composting, etc)

Certificate

After completing the workshop with adequate participation effort, you will receive the NVC-certificate ‘NVC Workshop Biopolymer Packaging’.