Native feedstock options for the polyhydroxyalkanoate industry in Europe: A review

The United Nations defined 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2016 and agreed on fighting to confront the climate change and protecting the oceans and forests. Subsequently, the sustainable production of bioplastics is gradually gaining reputation and significance. With the usage of bioplastics such as biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) various SDGs would be tackled, but costs remain a crucial factor for competing against fossil-based plastics. Appropriate local feedstock selection can help to reduce the production costs and minimize transportation routes. In this work, four feedstock generations are introduced and respective conversion strategies to PHA are presented. Whilst the focus is on mapping the abundances of feedstocks and potential PHA production capacities in Europe, utilization of animal by-product streams is also highlighted as a rather unconventional but highly abundant feedstock for PHA production.