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Seaweed as Basis of Eco-Sustainable Plastic Materials: Focus on Alginate
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This review examines seaweed—particularly brown seaweed-derived alginate—as a renewable feedstock for biodegradable bioplastics, covering extraction and processing methods including solvent casting, injection moulding, and extrusion. Alginate's gel-forming properties and versatility across food, pharmaceutical, and agricultural sectors make it a particularly promising candidate for sustainable packaging that can reduce dependence on conventional petroleum-based plastics.
Seaweed, a diverse and abundant marine resource, holds promise as a renewable feedstock for bioplastics due to its polysaccharide-rich composition. This review explores different methods for extracting and processing seaweed polysaccharides, focusing on the production of alginate plastic materials. Seaweed emerges as a promising solution, due to its abundance, minimal environmental impact, and diverse industrial applications, such as feed and food, plant and soil nutrition, nutraceutical hydrocolloids, personal care, and bioplastics. Various manufacturing techniques, such as solvent casting, injection moulding, and extrusion, are discussed for producing seaweed-based bioplastics. Alginate, obtained mainly from brown seaweed, is particularly known for its gel-forming properties and presents versatile applications in many sectors (food, pharmaceutical, agriculture). This review further examines the current state of the bioplastics market, highlighting the growing demand for sustainable alternatives to conventional plastics. The integration of seaweed-derived bioplastics into mainstream markets presents opportunities for reducing plastic pollution and promoting sustainability in material production.
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Seaweed as a Valuable and Sustainable Resource for Food Packaging Materials
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This review examined seaweed-derived polysaccharides (alginate, fucoidan, carrageenan, agar, ulvan) as sustainable alternatives to plastic food packaging materials, surveying recent developments in biodegradable films, coatings, and wraps. Seaweed's fast growth, minimal resource requirements, and rich polysaccharide content make it a promising candidate for reducing persistent plastic packaging waste in food systems.
An Overview of the Alternative Use of Seaweeds to Produce Safe and Sustainable Bio-Packaging
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This review explores how compounds derived from seaweed, particularly polysaccharides like alginates and carrageenans, can be used to create biodegradable packaging as an alternative to conventional plastics. Researchers found that seaweed-based biopolymers offer both functional packaging properties and potential health benefits, while avoiding the microplastic pollution caused by petroleum-based plastics. The approach represents a promising step toward reducing ocean plastic contamination by replacing single-use plastics with marine-sourced biodegradable materials.
Harnessing marine macroalgae for bioplastic materials production: a comprehensive review
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This review examined the potential of marine macroalgae-derived bioplastics using polysaccharides including alginate, carrageenan, and agar, highlighting their biodegradability and reduced carbon footprint compared to conventional plastics. Key barriers to commercialization include high production costs, mechanical deficiencies, and scalability limitations, which may be addressed through blending with other biopolymers and investment in biorefinery technologies.
Marine-derived biopolymers as potential bioplastics, an eco-friendly alternative
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Researchers reviewed marine-derived biopolymers—including chitosan, carrageenan, and alginate—as biodegradable alternatives to petroleum-based plastics, demonstrating that these materials offer competitive mechanical and barrier properties while substantially reducing end-of-life environmental persistence.
Synthesis and Characterization of Bioplastic from Macroalgae Padina australis
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Researchers produced bioplastic from the brown macroalgae Padina australis as an alternative to petroleum-based synthetic plastics, which are major environmental pollutants. The alginate-based bioplastic showed promising material properties, suggesting marine algae could be a sustainable raw material for reducing plastic waste.
Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.