POMOPLA2: A Bio-Based Material Solution Valorizing Tomato By-Products for Circular Packaging Applications

Abstract

The depletion of fossil resources, increasing packaging pollution, and stricter regulations require the development of sustainable alternative materials. This study presents POMOPLA², a fully bio-based composite that enhances circularity by valorizing industrial tomato peel by-products within a plasticized polylactic acid (PLA) matrix. A novel bio-based and biodegradable plasticizer derived from oils was used to successfully reduce PLA brittleness, providing higher toughness (+485%) and strain at break (+177%), a lower glass transition temperature, while enhancing the compatibility of the tomato peels, used as reinforcement. The incorporation of tomato peel biomass has the potential to reduce production costs, and we showed that it can be used to modulate mechanical performance as well as aesthetics-sensory attributes. Low percentages of tomato peels (5% w/w) maintained translucency for flexible film packaging applications, whereas higher contents (20% w/w) proved adequate mechanical properties for rigid packaging. POMOPLA² might implement a local circular economy in line with the European Circular Economy Action Plan, that is, to produce tomatoes' packaging to be potentially reintegrated into the biological cycle as compost, fostering a seamless nature-to-nature cycle.