The NRL-Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Sustainable Materials joint venture announcement, which expects to use byproducts from biorefineries and ag industries, comes shortly before India’s government bans single use plastic on October 2.
“The alliance between IIT Guwanhati and NRL is a first of its kind academic-industrial collaborative venture,” IITG director TG Sitharam tells Times of India. “This CoE will work towards the production of biodegradable plastics for our civil society utilizing the waste and intermediate materials from the existing oil and bio-feedstock based industries.” The center will also serve as an “umbrella” for collaborative research projects on bioplastics and chemicals.