F rom cars to food wrap and from planes to pens, you can make anything

and everything from plastics—unquestionably the world's most versatile

materials. But there's a snag. Plastics are synthetic (artificially created)
chemicals that don't belong in our world and don't mix well with nature.
Discarded plastics are a big cause of pollution, cluttering rivers, seas, and
beaches, killing fish, choking birds, and making our environment a much less
attractive place. Public pressure to clean up has produced plastics that seem
to be more environmentally friendly.

Biodegradable plastics are plastics that are capable of being decomposed by

bacteria or other living organisms.

What are biodegradable plastics? Biodegradable plastics are plastics that can be broken down by microorganisms
(bacteria or fungi) into water, carbon dioxide (CO2) and some bio-material. It is important to note that
biodegradable plastics are not necessarily made from bio-material (i.e. plants). Several biodegradable plastics are
made from oil in the same way as conventional plastics.

So what are biodegradable plastics good for? In principle plastics are valued for their ability to make strong,
durable products (for example in food storage, transport, building and construction). Biodegradability should
therefore be regarded as an additional functionality when the application demands a cheap way to dispose of the
item after it has fulfilled its job (e.g. for packaging, protect food and keep it fresh). Examples of useful
biodegradable products are:

1.
2. Food packaging – packaging that can be composted together with its contents when the product is past its
sell-by date or spoiled
3. Agriculture – plastic sheeting that can be ploughed-into biodegradable mulch and seed films
4. Medical – absorbable sutures; micro-devices containing medicine, which break down inside the body

5. Bioplastics are used for disposable items, such as packaging, crockery, cutlery, pots, bowls,
and straws.[4] They are also often used for bags, trays, fruit and vegetable containers and
blister foils, egg cartons, meat packaging, vegetables, and bottling for soft drinks and dairy
products.
6. These plastics are also used in non-disposable applications including mobile phone casings,
carpet fibres, insulation car interiors, fuel lines, and plastic piping. New electroactive
bioplastics are being developed that can be used to carry electric current.[5] In these areas,
the goal is not biodegradability
7. , but to create items from sustainable resources
 biodegradable plastics require specific conditions to biodegrade properly (micro-
organisms, temperature, and humidity), and if not managed properly they may be worse
for the environment than conventional plastics. When biodegradable plastics are put into
landfill (which should always be avoided in any case) they produce harmful greenhouse
gases when breaking down.

Photo: A typical eco-friendly bag made using EPI chemical additives. Added to normal plastics in small
quantities (about 2–3 percent), they cause the plastic to break down after exposure to sunlight, heat, or after
repeated stresses and strains through regular use.

The global plastics problem

Getting rid of plastics is extremely difficult. Burning them can give off toxic
chemicals such as dioxins, while collecting and recycling them responsibly is
also difficult, because there are many different kinds and each has to be
recycled by a different process. If we used only tiny amounts of plastics that
wouldn't be so bad, but we use them in astounding quantities. In Britain alone
(one small island in a very big world), people use 8 billion disposable plastic
bags each year. If you've ever taken part in a beach clean, you'll know that
about 80 percent of the waste that washes up on the shore is plastic, including
bottles, bottle tops, and tiny odd fragments known as "mermaids' tears."

We're literally drowning in plastic we cannot get rid of. And we're making most
of it from oil—a non-renewable resource that's becoming increasingly
expensive. It's been estimated that 200,000 barrels of oil are used each day to
make plastic packaging for the United States alone.

Photo: A biodegradable fruit and vegetable bag produced by d2w® for the UK's Co-op chain of grocery stores.

Making better plastics

Ironically, plastics are engineered to last. You may have noticed that some
plastics do, gradually, start to go cloudy or yellow after long exposure to
daylight (more specifically, in the ultraviolet light that sunlight contains). To
stop this happening, plastics manufacturers generally introduce extra
stabilizing chemicals to give their products longer life. With society's ever-
increasing focus on protecting the environment, there's a new emphasis on
designing plastics that will disappear much more quickly.

Broadly speaking, so-called "environmentally friendly" plastics fall into three

types:

 Bioplastics made from natural materials such as corn starch

 Biodegradable plastics made from traditional petrochemicals,
which are engineered to break down more quickly
 Eco/recycled plastics, which are simply plastics made from
recycled plastic materials rather than raw petrochemicals.

We'll look at each of these in turn.

Bioplastics
Photo: Some bioplastics can be harmlessly composted. Others leave toxic residues or plastic fragments
behind, making them unsuitable for composting if your compost is being used to grow food.

The theory behind bioplastics is simple: if we could make plastics from kinder
chemicals to start with, they'd break down more quickly and easily when we
got rid of them. The most familiar bioplastics are made from natural materials
such as corn starch and sold under such names as EverCorn™and Nature
Works—with a distinct emphasis on environmental credentials. Some
bioplastics look virtually indistinguishable from traditional petrochemical
plastics. Polylactide acid (PLA)looks and behaves like polyethylene and
polypropylene and is now widely used for food containers. According to
NatureWorks, making PLA saves two thirds the energy you need to make
traditional plastics. Unlike traditional plastics and biodegradable plastics,
bioplastics generally do not produce a net increase in carbon dioxide gas
when they break down (because the plants that were used to make them
absorbed the same amount of carbon dioxide to begin with). PLA, for
example, produces almost 70 percent less greenhouse gases when it
degrades in landfills.

Another good thing about bioplastics is that they're compostable: they decay
into natural materials that blend harmlessly with soil. Some bioplastics can
break down in a matter of weeks. The cornstarch molecules they contain
slowly absorb water and swell up; causing them to break apart into small
fragments that bacteria can digest more readily.

A recipe for PLA bioplastics

 1. Take some corn kernels (lots of them).
2. Process and mill them to extract the dextrose (a type of
sugar) from their starch.
3. Use fermenting vats to turn the dextrose into lactic
acid.
4. In a chemical plant, convert the lactic acid into lactide.
5. Polymerize the lactide to make long-chain molecules of
polylactide acid (PLA).

Biodegradable plastics

If you're in the habit of reading what supermarkets print on their plastic bags,
you may have noticed a lot of environmentally friendly statements appearing
over the last few years. Some stores now use what are described
as photodegradable, oxydegradable, or just biodegradable bags (in
practice, whatever they're called, it often means the same thing). As the name
suggests, these biodegradable plastics contain additives that cause them to
decay more rapidly in the presence of light and oxygen (moisture and heat
help too). Unlike bioplastics, biodegradable plastics are made of normal
(petrochemical) plastics and don't always break down into harmless
substances: sometimes they leave behind a toxic residue and that makes
them generally (but not always) unsuitable for composting.

Photo: A typical message on a biodegradable bag. This one, made from Eco Film™, is compostable too.

Recycled plastics

One neat solution to the problem of plastic disposal is to recycle old plastic
materials (like used milk bottles) into new ones (such as items of clothing). A
product called ecoplastic is sold as a replacement for wood for use in outdoor
garden furniture and fence posts. Made from high-molecular polyethylene, the
manufacturers boast that it's long-lasting, attractive, relatively cheap, and nice
to look at.

Photo: This "wooden" public bench looks much like any other until you look at the grain really closely. Then you
can see the wood is actually recycled plastic. The surface texture is convincing, but the giveaway is the ends of
the "planks," which don't look anything like the grain of wood.

But there are two problems with recycled plastics. First, plastic that's recycled
is generally not used to make the same items the next time around: old
recycled plastic bottles don't go to make new plastic bottles, but lower-grade
items such as plastic benches and fence posts. Second, you can't
automatically assume recycled plastics are better for the environment unless
you know they've been made with a net saving of energy and water, a net
reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, or some other overall benefit to the
environment. Keeping waste out of a landfill and turning it into new things is
great, but what if it takes a huge amount of energy to collect and recycle the
plastic—more even than making brand new plastic products?

Are bioplastics good or bad?

Anything that helps humankind solve the plastics problem has to be a good
thing, right? Unfortunately, environmental issues are never quite so simple.
Actions that seem to help the planet in obvious ways sometimes have major
drawbacks and can do damage in other ways. It's important to see things in
the round to understand whether "environmentally friendly" things are really
doing more harm than good.

Bioplastics and biodegradable plastics have long been controversial.

Manufacturers like to portray them as a magic-bullet solution to the problem of
plastics that won't go away. Bioplastics, for example, are touted as saving 30–
80 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions you'd get from normal plastics
and they can give food longer shelf-life in stores. But here are some of the
drawbacks:

 When some biodegradable plastics decompose in landfills, they

produce methane gas. This is a very powerful greenhouse gas
that adds to the problem of global warming.
 Biodegradable plastics and bioplastics don't always readily
decompose. Some need relatively high temperatures and, in
some conditions, can still take many years to break down. Even
then, they may leave behind toxic residues.
 Bioplastics are made from plants such as corn and maize, so
land that could be used to grow food for the world is being used
to "grow plastic" instead. By 2014, almost a quarter of US grain
production is expected to be turned over to biofuels and
bioplastics production, potentially causing a significant rise in
food prices that will hit the poorest people hardest.
 Some bioplastics, such as PLA, are made from genetically
modified corn. Most environmentalists consider GM (genetically
modified) crops to be inherently harmful to the environment.
 Bioplastics and biodegradable plastics cannot be easily
recycled. To most people, PLA looks very similar to PET
(polyethylene terephthalate) but, if the two are mixed up in a
recycling bin, the whole collection becomes impossible to
recycle. There are fears that increasing use of PLA may
undermine existing efforts to recycle plastics.

How to cut down on plastics

Why is life never simple? If you're keen on helping the planet, complications
like this sound completely exasperating. But don't let that put you off. As many
environmental campaigners point out, there are some very simple solutions to
the plastics problem that everyone can bear in mind to make a real difference.
Instead of simply sending your plastics waste for recycling, remember the
saying "Reduce, repair, reuse, recycle". Recycling, though valuable, is only
slightly better than throwing something away: you still have to use energy and
water to recycle things and you probably create toxic waste products as well.
It's far better to reduce our need for plastics in the first place than to have to
dispose of them afterwards.

Photo: Recycling, though sensible, is not always the best option. Generally it's better to reduce, reuse, and
repair if you can and recycle only if you can't do these things.

You can make a positive difference by actively cutting down on the plastics
you use. For example:

 Get a reusable cotton bag and take that with you ever time you
go shopping.
 Buy your fruit and vegetables loose, avoiding the extra plastic
on pre-packaged items.
 Use long-lasting items (such as razors and refillable pens)
rather than disposable ones. It can work out far cheaper in the
long run.
 If you break something, can you repair it simply and carry on
using it? Do you really have to buy a new one?
 Can you give unwanted plastic items a new lease of life? Ice
cream tubs make great storage containers; vending machine
 cups can be turned into plant pots; and you can use old plastic
supermarket bags for holding your litter.
 When you do have to buy new things, why not buy ones made
from recycled materials? By helping to create a market for
recycled products, you encourage more manufacturers to
recycle.

One day, we may have perfect plastics that break down in a trice. Until then,
let's be smarter about how we use plastics and how we get rid of them when
we've finished with them.

Over 31 million tons of plastic waste is produced each year, of which just 8% is recycled, according
to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Biodegradable plastic made from materials ranging
from bacteria to orange peels has been touted as a solution to the global plastic-waste problem and
a way to lessen our impact on the environment. However, a closer examination reveals
that biodegradable plastic may not live up to its eco-friendly image.

Biodegradable plastic was once a classic greenwashing scheme that often tricked consumers into
purchasing products that were not, in fact, biodegradable. However, the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) has cracked down on these dubious claims and now defines what can and cannot be
marketed as biodegradable plastic.

To qualify as biodegradable, a material must be scientifically proven to break down completely and
return to nature within a short time, the FTC says. Don’t be fooled, though: Not all biodegradable
plastic is made from bio-based products like plants and food waste; some is derived from synthetic
polyesters and other non-bio-based feedstock.

Is it really eco-friendly?
But even plastic certified as biodegradable may not be as environmentally friendly as it appears. In
fact, according to a recent study released by Germany’s Federal Environment Agency,
biodegradable plastic offers almost no environmental advantage over traditional plastic.

Why? Unless plastic is composted or recycled, it ends up in landfills, which are designed to be kept
dry and air-tight conditions that actually inhibit biodegradation. According to the Canada-based
Environment and Plastics Industry Council (EPIC), even though more than two-thirds of the garbage
that goes into landfills may be purported to be biodegradable, little change occurs once it gets there.

“Nothing has as popular an image as biodegradability in landfills unfortunately, though, it just doesn’t
happen,” says Dr. William Rathje, an archaeologist at the University of Arizona and author of the
book “Rubbish!: The Archaeology of Garbage.”

According to Rathje, if plastic were able to degrade in landfills, the environmental impact would be
even worse. When biodegradable plastic breaks down in landfills, he explains in his book, it releases
two greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and methane, exacerbating climate change. Moreover, it
could contribute to unstable sub-soil conditions and storm-water pollution.

There are also concerns about how biodegradable plastic is produced. For instance, much of the
feedstock used to create biodegradable plastic comes from corn and other plants that have been
treated with fertilizers and/or been genetically modified, the Sustainable Biomaterials Collaborative
notes.

What you can do

If biodegradable plastic is not really degradable after all, then what can you do to reduce your plastic
footprint? The good news is that biodegradable plastic will degrade if composted properly. The
Biodegradable Products Institute maintains a list of products that have been independently verified
as compostable.

If composting is not your thing, recycling and reusing are also generally sustainable options. Another
good practice is to reduce your plastic use overall, the EPIC recommends. Less plastic is better than
biodegradable plastic, so make smart decisions.

Read more: http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/responsible-living/stories/biodegradable-plastic-what-you-

need-to-know#ixzz3e6bOqXNS
MATERIAL OF THE MONTH:
BIODEGRADABLE PLASTICS
Materials World magazine

Sep 24, 2013

In UK households, 60% of plastic waste comes from packaging and more than 80% of that plastic
is used just once and then sent to landfill where it remains, consumers are often told, because
plastics do not break down. Recently, however, a new generation of plastics have begun to appear
on the market and in shopping bags. Degradable plastics break down relatively quickly under
specific environmental conditions – photodegradable plastics degrade when exposed to light and
biodegradable plastics can be decomposed by bacteria or other living organisms.

Biodegradable plastics can be plant- or oil-based. The plant-based variety are known as bioplastics and
are derived from raw materials such as corn and potato starch, so manufacturers claim they are
sustainable as well as biodegradable. Oil-based plastics are typically derived from non-renewable
sources such as crude oil, and are processed using energy-intensive and environmentally hazardous
techniques.

Plastic materials are made up of long chains of molecules and the molecular weight of a plastic gives an
indication of the length of its chains. Plastic is a potential food source for microbes because it is organic
(contains carbon atoms) and the shorter the chains, the more easily digestible the plastic is. For example,
polythene is biodegradable as long as it has a molecular weight of less than 500. In some cases,
additives are used to enhance the biodegradation of a plastic, and some types work by breaking up the
plastic’s chains. Additives can be introduced in different amounts so that biodegradation begins after the
required shelf life and at a controlled rate. So has science found a solution to the Great Pacific Garbage
Patch? Not quite.

When biodegradable plastics are buried in landfill, there is a limited supply of oxygen and water so they
break down anaerobically, releasing methane. In fact, the EU’s Landfill Directive limits the amount of
biodegradable waste that can be disposed of in landfill in an attempt to control greenhouse gas
production. It requires member states to reduce the amount of biodegradable municipal waste being sent
to landfill to 50% by 2009 and to 35% by 2016, compared with 1995 levels.

Oxo-biodegradable plastics seem to offer an advantage in this regard because they break down without
releasing methane. However, as their name suggests, their requirement for oxygen to enable the
degradation process to occur means it will not break down if buried. The degradation consists of two
steps – first an oxidisation process takes place under the action of heat or light, which reduces the
molecular weight of the plastic. Then microbes break down the plastic further. A plastic material, such as
polythene, can be made oxo-biodegradable by the addition of salts of transition elements such as cobalt
or iron, which are referred to as the pro-oxidants.

Two problems with the breakdown of biodegradable plastics are that the process can take a long time
and the remaining solid products, while existing in very small and often invisible fragments, are
sometimes toxic. This is where compostable plastics (sometimes confused with biodegradable plastics)
differ, because for plastics to be termed compostable they must break down in a timely manner and leave
no toxic residue. The resulting compost supports plant growth, but it can contain inorganic materials, so
differs from garden compost. The time compostable plastics take to break down must be similar to that
taken by other compostable materials, such as plant waste, but the process normally requires an
industrial composting facility due to the need for much higher temperatures than those in a domestic
composter. Bioplastics are an attractive option because they are often compostable and are made from
renewable sources. However, if the raw material required for the production of the plastic grows in place
of a food crop, the potential impact on a growing global population is undeniable.

Nevertheless, all the plastic types mentioned can be considered more sustainable than conventional
plastics. But they don’t hold the key to the world’s problem of plastic waste, in part because of their
mentioned drawbacks. So what can we do? The trusty Waste Hierarchy can help us answer this question.
It presents a list of waste management options, often in a pyramid, with the least favourable at the
bottom.

Short of littering, the worst thing we can do with waste is dispose of it in a landfill. Even if biodegradable
plastic waste breaks down in a completely harmless way, the material and energy resources used to
produce it are lost. When consumers see the words biodegradable or compostable, they might be put at
ease, but the word disposable should put users off.

Next up in the hierarchy, we find energy recovery and recycling, which are often not as sustainable as
they sound, especially for plastics, which emit harmful gases when burned and degrade when recycled. In
addition, the cost of cleaning and sorting plastic waste – including the removal of biodegradable plastics
from the mix – is one factor that is hindering the uptake of plastic recycling. An interesting suggestion is
that compostable plastics might be advantageous when it comes to the problem of plastic waste that is
contaminated with food. This is because these plastics can be composted together with food waste and
materials such as paper packaging, meaning establishments such as cafes can put everything in one bin
with an eased conscience. Next up in the Waste Hierarchy, after recycling, is reusing. This can be done
easily with items such as plastic water bottles.

The best thing to do with regards to waste is prevent it, or at least minimise it, in the first place. In many
cases, if this decision is made then an alternative product will be required and it is important to choose
wisely. For example, cotton bags might seem an attractive alternative to conventional plastic carrier bags.
However, they require more resources to manufacture and transport so must be used more than 100
times to compensate for this. Incidentally, the future of biodegradable plastic bags – at one time a very
popular option – is uncertain, because of the disadvantages mentioned above.

In conclusion, the solution when it comes to disposable and throw-away plastic goods seems to be to
drastically reduce the use of these goods, because of the material they are made from and because of
the practice of using them only once. Alternative products and habits must be selected carefully. With
regards to longer life plastic goods, compostable bioplastics might offer the best possible solution. Biome
Bioplastics in Hampshire is one company that is developing bioplastics for the more durable plastics
market, in collaboration with the University of Warwick. The joint team is looking at lignin, which is found
in plant cells and provides structural support to plants, as a source of chemicals that will impart properties
such as toughness to the bioplastics. Lignin is not only renewable but it is a waste product from the pulp
and paper industry. In the future we might find this type of plastic under our car bonnets – our electric car
bonnets of course.

Applications[edit]

Flower wrapping made of PLA-blend bio-flex

Medical implants made of PLA, which dissolve in the body, can save patients a second operation.
Compostable mulch films can also be produced from starch polymers and used in agriculture. These
films do not have to be collected after use on farm fields.[6]

Biopolymers are available as coatings for paper rather than the more common petrochemical
coatings