Strategic valorization of heterogeneous organic wastes for sustainable food packaging: A circular economy approach

Background: The growing environmental burden imposed by conventional petroleum-based polymers in food packaging has prompted a renewed attention towards sustainable alternatives. One such approach is the utilization of heterogenous organic waste produced by varied sectors. Their by-products hold a huge amount of valuable and functional materials that can be transformed into eco-friendly food packaging. Scope: This review examines the viability of diverse organic waste streams as a sustainable resource to produce eco-friendly food packaging materials. It emphasizes the necessity of shifting from conventional petroleum-based packaging to sustainable options by examining the components of heterogeneous organic waste streams. It offers valuable insight into the utilization of biopolymers and bioactive compounds often found in these wastes and focuses on waste valorization with the perception of waste management, circular economy and sustainable development goals. Additionally, this study provides a comprehensive overview of research conducted in the past five years with regards to the valorization of organic waste into food packaging. Key findings: Heterogenous organic waste streams are rich sources of biopolymers (polysaccharides) and bioactive compounds (polyphenols and flavonoids). They offer huge advantages and are a suitable alternative to petroleum resources utilized for packaging materials. These bio-based packaging materials are known to increase the shelf-life, barrier and antioxidant properties. Sometimes, individually they lack certain properties, however, their modification helps to overcome these challenges. Moreover, pilot scale studies and industrial scale studies of packaging materials produced from a variety of waste are still lacking. Furthermore, the potential of 3D printing technologies for fabricating packaging materials from industrial residues is yet to be explored extensively.