Accelerated Biodegradation: Fast-Tracking Benign by Design Materials

Environmental concerns, resource limitations, and legislative pressures have driven the development of biodegradable alternatives to fossil-based polymers. While these polymers show great promise, they require rigorous testing to assess their environmental impact. The challenge lies in the current standardised methods for assessing biodegradability, which are time-consuming, laborious, and costly—often taking months or even years to complete. This end-of-life testing creates a significant bottleneck in product development. Ambitious goals need to be set in order to increase the throughput of materials through end-of-life assessment, biodegradation and composting being a key milestone. In our presentation, we will outline the current state of standard assessment methods and introduce new approaches to accelerated testing. Impact Solutions has led the vanguard for this testing in the UK and we are looking to gather like-minds to meet the challenges of this work head on. This development is crucial for product formulation, ensuring the highest impact materials possible, which are benign by design.