Guest pen The development of bio-based materials should not be hampered

Finland there is a treasure trove in the forests and soil that we do not yet know how to use properly. Although the forest industry is one of the cornerstones of our national economy, biomass in Finland is still completely undervalued.

The degree of processing of Finnish forests is still low, and biomass is still too often seen as an energy source. Instead of turning the energy fraction into value-added materials and products, the surplus biomass is processed into fuel.

We tend to think wrongly that when a tree is felled from a forest or biomass is collected from a field, it is immediately removed from the total amount of carbon stored. Just as carbon dioxide would instantly evaporate into the air as smoke. It would be more important to pay attention to how biomass is utilized.

Bio-based materials offer enormous potential for combating climate change. They already know how to make products to replace, for example, plastic, textiles and even dental implant crowns. In this way, bio-based products can replace fossil fuels.

Bio-based products also act as good carbon stores. There is only a limited amount of wood in Finnish forests. Therefore, it would be worthwhile to bind carbon to products made from bio-based materials, the raw materials of which can be recycled several times.

Globally, paper and board are produced as much as plastic, but the amount of printing paper is declining all the time. By moving to the processing of bio-based products, we could cut plastic growth – but without the need to increase biomass production.

Unfortunately the development of bio-based products is being hampered by misguided regulation. The definition of plastics in the EU’s Disposable Plastics Directive, which came into force in the summer, makes room for the development of bio-based materials.

The problem is that the directive defines plastics through a process: it states that plastics are all polymers that do not occur in nature by themselves, ie that have been treated by some chemical process. The exceptions to the directive specifically mention pulp cooking and viscose and lyocell products, which are the most common modified wood-based cellulosic fibers. All other developments in bio-based materials have been defined as plastics – even if they are biodegradable.

According to the directive, plastic is considered to be, for example, a bio-based absorbent material that could replace the plastic used as a absorbent in diapers. Because the cellulose in the material has been chemically modified to absorb a lot of water, the directive defines it as plastic – despite the fact that the material is biodegradable and made from renewable raw materials.

From a scientific point of view, bio-based are all raw materials that are born in nature as a result of incorporation. What is important for the production of materials is how long the raw material lasts to be renewed and what properties and effects the developed material has. If no harm is caused, it should not matter how the material is made.

The problem at the heart is that regulations on climate emissions and regulations to reduce plastics are partially inconsistent. The use of biomaterial is an advantageous way to reduce the use of fossil carbon, but efforts are being made to limit bio-based materials to prevent even limited environmental pollution.

Legislators should pay attention to how to reconcile regulation for different purposes. Regulation needs clear metrics to guide whether a material is being recycled or how much waste or emissions are generated during its manufacture. Not the actions are defined but the desired effects.

Bio-based products can play a significant role both in combating climate change and in increasing the business and exports of Finnish companies.

Legislators should act as a catalyst for development, not a brake.

Ali Harlin

The author is a research professor at the Technology Research Center (VTT).

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