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Seperating facts and fictions for biodegradability of bioplastics
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This review clarifies widespread misconceptions about bioplastics, emphasizing that not all bioplastics are biodegradable and that many require specific industrial composting conditions to break down, while also outlining current limitations in production cost, recycling infrastructure, and mechanical performance that must be addressed before bioplastics can serve as a truly sustainable plastic alternative.
Despite plastics constituting a vital part of our live, such as food items, or home utensils, they have also earned notoriety among researchers due to their high greenhouse gas emissions, increased accumulation in landfills, and their sedimentation on the marine environment causing hazardous health concerns for mankind by entering into our food web as micro plastics. Hence while looking for a substitute for plastics, researchers came across bio-plastics, plastics made from biomass (renewable resources) that are even biodegradable and are now getting incorporated into the global world in the form of rigid packaging, consumers goods, textiles, in the agricultural and horticulture, and in automotive and transport, with an expected growth rate of 200% in the near future. The ability of bio-plastic to biodegrade makes it eco-friendly, and new innovations in its compositions increase its versatility as packaging or consumer products. This review article discusses the misconceptions about the biodegradability of bio-plastics and gaps regarding the basic concept of ‘the rate of biodegradability in bioplastics’; all bioplastics are not biodegradable and some require different conditions such as aeration time, composting environment, etc., along with an overview of the biodegradability of various bio-plastics under different standards and conditions such as aeration time, days, a comparison between conventional plastics and bio-plastics, types of bio-plastics based on raw materials, and future perspectives that despite being a sustainable solution for greener environment, bio-plastics still lack in certain areas as production cost, recycling infrastructure, mechanical properties, and quick bio-degradation standards that are more suitable for industry and natural environment. This review article also provides suggestions to improve bio-plastics towards a more sustainable solution using various techniques as polymer mixing, use of additives such as plasticizers or surfactants etc.
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