engleski

Biodegradable Plastics – Challenges and Opportunities

The concept of materials coming from nature with environmental advantages of being biodegradable and/or biobased (often referred to as bioplastics), is very attractive to the industry and to the consumers. Bioplastics already play an important role in the fields of packaging, agriculture, gastronomy, consumer electronics and automotive, but still they have a very low share in the total production of plastics (less than 1%). Biodegradable plastics are often perceived as the possible solution for the waste problem, but biodegradability is just an additional feature of the material to be exploited at the end of its life in specific terms, on specific landfill and in specific time, which is often forgotten. They should be used as a favoured choice for the applications that demand a cheap way to dispose of the item after it has fulfilled its job (e.g. for food packaging, agriculture or medical products). The paper will present the opportunities and future challenges of biodegradable plastics, regarding processing, properties and their preferred end of life option, composting.

Bioplastics; biodegradable plastics; bio-based plastics; biodegradation; composting

nije evidentirano