Smaller than A Woodchip: Packaging for a Sustainable Future

In this webinar, Dr. Ronald Sabo will provide an introduction to wood-based nanomaterials and an overview of some of the ongoing research to develop sustainable packaging products.

Wood has long been used as a packaging material and continues to be one of the primary sources for producing packaging products, including corrugated boxes, shelf-ready packaging, and shipping pallets. The use of non-renewable plastics has grown dramatically for packaging products, especially single-use packages, largely because of their low cost, ease of manufacturing, sanitary properties, and barrier performance.

Unfortunately, these products typically are not readily recyclable or biodegradable and often pollute the environment. Recent advances in wood-based nanotechnology offer the potential to use wood fibers to create packaging materials whose performance is comparable to plastics. These wood-based micro- and nanofibers have been shown to have good grease and oxygen barriers and offer the opportunity to create sustainable, recyclable, and biodegradable packaging products that can compete in performance to plastics.