Environmental Impact Assessment of Bioplastic

Due to the increasing demand for plastic substitutes that are environmentally friendly, bioplastics have attracted interest since they are able to reduce the negative effects that fossil fuel plastics have on ecosystems. Bioplastics, which are made from renewable sources, have a lot of benefits, such as lower emissions than greenhouse gas (GHG), being degradable, and being recyclables as well as recoverable for energy. Compared to other common plastics, some bioplastics, including the polylactic acid and polyhydroxyalkanoates, can only take a few years to disintegrate under favourable conditions and hence do not contribute to the marine and land dump of plastics. Furthermore, bioplastics have a role in soil carbon dynamics, thus increasing soil fertility and increasing carbon sequestration potential. However, issues are still present, such as the slow biodegradation rate in the natural ecosystem and also the problem of mechanical recycling because of the presence of contamination by other petroleum-based plastics. Other alternative techniques like combustion reactions and anaerobic digestion provide promising pathways for better resource retrieval but come with additional energy requirements; however, they have limitations. Bioplastics have been promoted as an alternative solution to many environmental problems that plastics cause; however, there is still lacking information about the long-term ecological problems that these bioplastics will cause due to the small microplastic components that are bioplastic. Additional research is necessary to fully understand the fate and influence of bioplastics and microplastics in the environment.