At first sight, the food packaging developed by the researcher Idalina Gonçalves at the University of Aveiro (UA) looks like those made of plastic commonly used by the food industry and commercial surfaces. But any resemblance to synthesized materials from oil derivatives and that, increasingly, constitute an environmental problem, is only due to the aspect. Developed exclusively from potatoes, UA’s bioplastic for food packaging aims at putting an end to the dictatorship of synthetic plastics. Besides being biodegradable, the new bioplastic’s ingredients promote a better conservation of food when compared to traditional plastics.

The University of Aveiro presented 14 students from the Joint European Master in Environmental Studies: Cities and Sustainability with participation certificates on Saturday 13th of October. This masters programme is the result of collaboration between four European Universities that are members of the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU): Aalborg University in Denmark, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal and Hamburg University of Technology in Germany.