At just under one percent, the share of bio-based plastics on the global market is still very low. However, the global plastics industry is changing. Renewable raw and residual materials are increasingly coming into focus. In the Bio-Polyols project, researchers at Bielefeld University, together with an industrial partner, have now developed a process to produce the important plastic group of polyurethanes from domestic vegetable oils and make them usable for high-performance composites.
Paludiculture creates biodiversity
An international study from 2022 shows that wetlands such as peatlands can store five times more carbon per square meter than forests and even 500 times more than the oceans. In Germany, peatlands have been drained in recent decades in order to be able to use the land for agriculture. This has not only destroyed the habitat of many plants and animals, but also an important CO2 reservoir.