Bio-plastics are being promoted as a way of reducing the amount of plastic that does not get recycled.

Professor Kevin O’Connor has a number of projects with the objective of reducing the amount of waste that goes to the incinerator.

O’Connor is doing so in two separate projects, one through a company he set up, Bioplastech and P4SB.

Bioplastech currently turns waste into biodegradable polymers which are now being tested with international adhesive companies.

P4SB is a €7.4m European Union Horizon 2020 project through which O’Connor and his team at University College Dublin, Ireland, aims to propel the sustainable production of new polymers from waste plastic.

Both of these projects are using bacteria and their enzymes to biochemically upcycle these waste materials.

O’Connor is a chairperson of the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBIJU), a €4bn public private partnership between the EU and the bio-based consortium, which aims to develop sustainable bio-based industrial activity in Europe.

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