A l'UM la science [S02-ep28]: From bio-based plastics to innovation afterwork

This week on A l'UM la science, Emmanuelle Gastaldi from the IATE LABORATORY laboratory, makes us aware of the good and bad uses of biosourced and/or biodegradable plastics. The report takes us to the platform with Aurélien Lebrun. Finally, Kelly Berriat teases us about the Innovation Awards at the University of Montpellier. A program broadcast every Wednesday at 6pm on Divergence FM 93.9.

It's June 21! It's summer, and we're slowly making our way back down to the end of the season, with only two programs left before the summer break. Time for days at the beach, walks in the garrigues and picnics by the river. Perhaps you'll wonder why you ever bought that little recyclable plastic water bottle when an aluminum flask would have done the trick. Perhaps you'll be tempted by a Piedmontese in the delicatessen section of your supermarket, in which case you'll ask the sales assistant whether the packaging is made of conventional or bio-sourced plastic. Unless you prefer homemade Piedmontaise, in which case you'll probably be carrying your tomatoes and potatoes in a compostable cornstarch bag. And if, during the picnic, an untimely gust of wind blows away this marvel of technology, you can always console yourself with the fact that the bag has been designed to disintegrate on its own in nature. Ah, the bliss of a clean conscience. But then...

Except that the study we're going to tell you about today risks slightly biodegrading this good conscience, since it questions the place of biosourced and biodegradable plastics and highlights the difficulty of proving their biodegradability outside laboratory conditions that are sometimes far removed from the real conditions in which these plastics will end up. Our guest is Emmanuelle Gastaldi. She is a researcher in the IATE laboratory (Ingénierie des agropolymères et technologies émergentes). She co-authored an article entitled Discussion about suitable applications for biodegradable plastics regarding their sources, uses and end of life published in Waste Managment.

In the second half of the show, we take you to the Physical Measurements Laboratory located in the Balard chemistry cluster, and more specifically we visit the NMR platform for nuclear magnetic resonance. Aurélien Lebrun introduces us to the platform's equipment and explains how spectrometry can be used to better characterize molecules or determine sample purity.

Last but not least, our guest for the last three minutes comes from the University's communication department, in other words, from the house. Kelly Berriat will be talking about the UM Innovation Awards, which will be presented on June 28 at the Jardin des Plantes during the Innovation Afterwork.

At UM la science you've got the program, here we go!

Coproduction: Divergence FM / Université de Montpellier
Animation: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interviews: Lucie Lecherbonnier / Aline Périault
Reporting and editing: Aline Périault
Production : Naomi Charmetan

Listen to the program "A l'UM la science" on Divergence FM 93.9