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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Bioplastics in the circular bioeconomy: Production pathways, biodegradation mechanisms, and environmental implications
ClearBioplastics in the circular bioeconomy: Production pathways, biodegradation mechanisms, and environmental implications
This is a duplicate entry of the same bioplastics circular bioeconomy review (also listed as ID 2497), covering production pathways, microbial biodegradation mechanisms, and the risk that incomplete degradation of bio-based plastics can still generate microplastics in soil, freshwater, and marine environments.
Biodegradation of Wasted Bioplastics
This paper provides a broad overview of bioplastics — materials made from renewable biological sources — discussing their potential as a partial solution to global plastic pollution and the complexity of their biodegradability. While microplastic accumulation in oceans is mentioned as context for the urgency of the problem, the paper's focus is on bioplastic production and biodegradation rather than microplastic health or environmental impacts.
A Review of Bioplastics and Their Adoption in the Circular Economy
This review examines the current landscape of bioplastics, including bio-based and biodegradable materials, as potential alternatives to conventional fossil-fuel-derived plastics. Researchers assessed standards, life cycle analyses, and environmental performance of various bioplastic types. The study highlights that while bioplastics offer potential benefits for reducing fossil resource dependency, challenges remain around their actual environmental performance and integration into circular economy systems.
Bioplastics for a circular economy
Researchers reviewed the role of bioplastics — made from bio-based or biodegradable polymers — in circular economy systems, finding that while they can lower carbon footprints and enable end-of-life biodegradation, trade-offs including land competition, unclear recycling compatibility, and higher costs limit their scalable sustainable impact.
Towards a Circular Economy of Plastics: An Evaluation of the Systematic Transition to a New Generation of Bioplastics
This review evaluates the transition from petroleum-based plastics to bioplastics within a circular economy framework, assessing the sustainability, production challenges, and environmental trade-offs of current bioplastic alternatives.
Bioplastics and the environment: Solution or Green Illusion?
This review critically evaluates whether bioplastics are genuinely environmentally friendly alternatives to conventional plastics, finding that many bioplastics degrade incompletely under real-world conditions, form persistent microplastic fragments, and may pose ecological risks comparable to conventional plastics.
Potential environmental impacts of bioplastic degradation in natural marine environments: A comprehensive review
This review examines the environmental impacts of biodegradable plastics degrading in marine environments, finding that their microscale breakdown raises significant concerns about contributing to microplastic pollution rather than eliminating it. The authors conclude that biodegradable plastics require reevaluation as petroleum-based plastic substitutes given the incomplete understanding of their behavior at the microscale in marine ecosystems.
Biodegradable Bioplastics: A Review of State-of-the-Art, Challenges, and Future Directions
This review covers the current state, challenges, and future directions for biodegradable bioplastics derived from organic sources like starch and cellulose. While bioplastics are promoted as alternatives to conventional plastics, not all fully break down in natural environments, meaning some can still generate microplastic fragments.
Exploring the hidden environmental pollution of microplastics derived from bioplastics: A review
This review examines the often-overlooked problem that even bioplastics, marketed as eco-friendly alternatives, can break down into micro- and nanoplastics in the environment. Research since 2012 has identified multiple degradation pathways, including UV exposure, mechanical wear, and biodegradation, that fragment bioplastics into tiny particles. The toxicity of these bioplastic-derived microparticles is still poorly understood, highlighting a hidden source of plastic pollution.
Economia Circular E Desenvolvimento Sustentável: Compostabilidade, Biodegradação E Inovação Em Biopolímeros E Compósitos Renováveis Para Aplicações Estruturais, Agrícolas E Embalagens
This review paper summarizes research on new plant-based plastics that can break down naturally in the environment, unlike regular plastics made from oil. These eco-friendly materials could replace traditional plastic in food packaging and farming, potentially reducing the tiny plastic particles that end up in our food and water. However, the technology still needs improvements and better waste management systems before these biodegradable plastics can widely replace regular plastics.
Bioplastics: Missing link in the era of Microplastics
Researchers examined whether bioplastics, often promoted as eco-friendly alternatives to conventional plastics, also break down into microplastics. They found that polyhydroxyalkanoate bioplastic films formed microplastic particles in water environments similar to conventional plastics. The study highlights that biodegradable plastics may not solve the microplastic problem and calls for more research into how quickly bioplastics actually degrade and what effects their microplastic fragments have on ecosystems.
Exploration of Bioplastics: A Review
This review assessed bioplastics as alternatives to petroleum-based plastics, covering their production, properties, biodegradability, and limitations as a solution to plastic pollution. While bioplastics offer reduced fossil fuel dependence, the authors noted that many only degrade under industrial composting conditions and are not a complete solution to environmental plastic accumulation.
Recycling of Bioplastics: Routes and Benefits
Researchers reviewed how bioplastics — plastics made from biological sources rather than petroleum — combined with mechanical and chemical recycling could replace conventional plastics and help reduce microplastic buildup in marine ecosystems that ultimately accumulates in humans.
Microplastic biodegradation and environmental safety: From microbial mechanisms to engineered systems and circular bio-based implementation.
This research review summarizes what scientists know about using bacteria and enzymes to break down microplastics—tiny plastic particles smaller than 5mm that contaminate our water, soil, and air. While these biological approaches show promise for removing dangerous plastic pollution from the environment, the methods don't always work completely and may create new harmful byproducts. The findings matter because microplastics can enter our food chain and bodies, so we need safe and effective ways to remove them without creating new health risks.
Environmental performance of bioplastics: degradation pathways, chemical leaching, and life-cycle implications
This review of existing research found that bioplastics—supposedly eco-friendly alternatives to regular plastic—may not be as safe as promised. These "green" plastics can still break down into harmful microplastics and leak toxic chemicals, potentially affecting human health just like conventional plastics. The study shows we need better testing and disposal systems before bioplastics can truly be considered a safer choice for people and the environment.
Sustainable struggling: decoding microplastic released from bioplastics—a critical review
This critical review examines biodegradable plastics as an alternative to conventional plastics, finding that many do not fully degrade under real-world conditions and can fragment into microplastics more rapidly than their conventional counterparts.
A progress update on the biological effects of biodegradable microplastics on soil and ocean environment: A perfect substitute or new threat?
This review examines whether biodegradable plastics, often marketed as eco-friendly alternatives, actually break down safely in the environment. The evidence shows that biodegradable plastics often fragment into microplastics rather than fully decomposing, and these biodegradable microplastics can harm soil organisms, marine life, and disrupt nutrient cycles. The findings suggest that simply switching to biodegradable plastics may not solve the microplastic pollution problem and could introduce new environmental risks.
Are bioplastics the solution to the plastic pollution problem?
This review examines whether bioplastics can meaningfully reduce plastic pollution, concluding that while bioplastics offer some advantages, they are not a straightforward solution because many require industrial composting conditions and their environmental benefits depend heavily on end-of-life management.
Solution or Pollution? A paradigm shifts in understanding the fate and threats of biodegradable plastics in the marine environment
This review challenges the assumption that biodegradable plastics are inherently eco-friendly by examining their degradation behavior in marine environments. Researchers found that biodegradable plastics often require specific conditions to break down and can themselves become sources of microplastic pollution when those conditions are not met. The study highlights a significant research gap in understanding the fate of biodegradable nano- and pico-plastics in marine ecosystems.
Recent Advances in Bioplastics: Application and Biodegradation
This review examines recent advances in bioplastics — including their applications in packaging, agriculture, and medicine — and critically evaluates their actual biodegradation performance in both natural and industrial environments, finding a significant gap between claims and real-world outcomes.
Plastic waste impact and biotechnology: Exploring polymer degradation, microbial role, and sustainable development implications
Researchers reviewed how microorganisms and their enzymes can break down different types of plastic waste through both aerobic (oxygen-using) and anaerobic (oxygen-free) pathways. The review highlights biotechnological tools like genetic modification that could accelerate plastic biodegradation, supporting a shift toward a circular economy.
A review of bioplastics as an alternative to petrochemical plastics: Its types, structure, characteristics, degradation, standards, and feedstocks
This review compares bioplastics to traditional petroleum-based plastics, covering their types, structure, biodegradability, and the standards they must meet to be called compostable. While bioplastics generally have a lower environmental footprint, not all of them fully break down in natural conditions, meaning some can still generate microplastic fragments. The review is relevant because understanding which alternative plastics truly degrade could help reduce the ongoing accumulation of microplastics in the environment.
Compounding one problem with another? A look at biodegradable microplastics
This review examines whether biodegradable plastics truly solve the microplastic problem, finding that many do not fully break down under real-world conditions. Incomplete decomposition of biodegradable plastics can generate micro-sized particles that may be just as harmful as conventional microplastics. The authors warn that marketing plastics as "biodegradable" without ensuring complete breakdown could actually worsen environmental microplastic contamination.
Bio-based plastics in a circular economy: A review of recovery pathways and implications for product design
Researchers reviewed how bio-based plastics — made from renewable plant sources — can be recovered and recycled at end-of-life, finding that the feasibility of eight different recovery methods depends heavily not just on plastic chemistry but on how products are designed, and offering guidance for designers to improve recyclability.