The core principles \"take, make, dispose\" of a linear economy are replaced by \"take, make, reuse\" in a circular economy. \"Reuse\" involves circular criteria like repair, refurbish, and recycle, as recently reported by [PERSON] et al. [19]. Within the last decade, the development and promotion of more sustainable materials became key roles on social and political levels in the EU [14]. Pursuing these strategies, the European Commission adopted a Circular Economy Action Plan in 2015 [20]. This action plan lays the foundation for a new plastics economy addressing the environmental issues concerning plastics and forcing the EU to move towards a more sustainable model for economic development [21]. The EU launched and developed the action plan in 2018 with the \"European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy\", the so called plastics strategy [14]. The plastics strategy forces the industry to rethink plastics design and their usage, disposal, and recycling within the entire value chain. The main goal is to achieve improvements in sustainability [8]. To reduce environmental impacts, one key requirement is the complete reusability and/or recyclability of all plastic packaging placed on the EU market by 2030 [14]. Moreover, [PERSON] et al. stated that innovations in food packaging have to focus on maintaining food safety and shelf life and reducing food waste [8]. Besides current political requirements, sustainable packaging is also an important aspect for consumers [14; 22]. As consumer preferences shifted to high quality and safe products with enhanced shelf life, the development of various new trends in packaging systems has arisen [1]. There are different strategies for the development of sustainable packaging such as reducing packaging materials by decreasing the thickness and/or number of layers, applying bio-based and/or biodegradable materials, reducing the amount of layers, and using easy recyclable materials [22]. For example, material properties of simple mono-layer materials can be improved by design of packaging itself such as introducing packaging conditions through a modified atmosphere or by using active packaging solutions [23]. Recently, [PERSON] et al. reported that the environmental benefit of weight reduction is greater than the benefit from improved recyclability in terms of meat packaging [24]. Therefore, bio-based and biodegradable polymers represent a growing field in creating environmentally friendly materials [25]. The continued use of agricultural and industrial by-products and waste flows such as corn stover, wheat straw, and whey constitutes from dairy and cheese industries as raw materials would provide a significant ecological advantage and would reduce pressure on land use [26; 27; 28]. Plant-based (waste) materials such as wood and lignocellulosic residues from agriculture and forestry are a major source of polysaccharides; therefore, they are considered as sustainable alternatives. They have the potential to be used instead of fossil resources [29; 30]. Concerns about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the security of industrial feedstock supplies promote substituting conventional fossil-based feedstock in the production of synthetic materials with biomass [31]. Several studies considering cradle-to-grave life cycle analysis (LCA) of various bio- and fossil-based plastics showed that the production and use of plastics produced from renewable resources is generally advantageous in terms of saving fossil resources and reducing GHG emissions [28; 32; 33]. Biodegradable or compostable plastics can reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills [1; 8]. Natural bio-based polymers such as agar, chitosan, cellulose, and starch represent the group of bio-based polymers in food packaging applications [34]. Although significant effort is currently being made to develop novel, sustainable materials, there are currently no competitive alternatives which offer the same level of protection to fossil-based multi-layer plastic packaging, especially for fresh products like meat [8].