Bioplastics: Application And Impact On Environment

Bioplastics are the kind of plastics that requires the use of renewable or organic resources such as vegetable oils and starches for their manufacturing. By 2025, petroleum used in the manufacturing of Bioplastics is expected to decrease by 15-20%.
Bioplastics can be made from renewable resources (Biobased), or they can break down naturally (Biodegradable), or maybe both. Carbon Dioxide produced by almost all the bioplastics is less than the usual plastics. They are not always wholly green. While biodegrading, some bioplastics can also produce carbon dioxide or monoxide. Under the right circumstances, some biodegradable plastics can take 180 days to break down.

What are Bio-Based Bioplastics?

Bio-Based means the products that are partially or wholly acquired from biomass (plants). For example, Starch or Cellulose is a renewable resource used to produce bioplastics, and they are typically derived from sugarcane. Also, Bio-Based is not equal to biodegradable.

What are Biodegradable Plastics?

Biodegradable means a chemical process in which the microbes present in the environment converts or breaks down the material organically into natural substances such as water or compost without any artificial additives. Though all materials are biodegradable, a product is considered to be Biodegradable if it usually degrades in a shorter period of time i.e., Weeks or months. The degrading process also depends on the environmental surroundings, i.e., location and temperature.

What are Compostable Plastics?

Compostable Plastics are plastics that have the capacity to endure biological decomposition in compost as a part of the available program so that it is visually distinct and breaks down into Carbon Dioxide, Water, and man-made compounds at a rate that is consistent and doesn’t leave any toxic remnants. One factor that distinguishes Compostable and Biodegradable is the necessity of Toxic residue.

Importance of Bioplastics:

To prevent environmental pollution and save the planet from suffocating, we have to reduce the use of regular plastics, and only the use of Bioplastics can do that. Our dependency on Non-Renewable resources that are more harmful to the environment can be reduced with the use of bioplastics. We can reduce pollution in a very real way by using bioplastics as they are degradable and created from renewable resources such as Corn oil, Sugar beet, Sugar cane, and plants.

Common Applications of Bioplastics:

A. Bioplastic Packaging: This is a Substitutional approach to packaging and is a genuine solution needed in the reduction of the use of regular plastics as bio-based polymers can compost fully at the end. The use of bioplastics for the manufacturers can be really easy as no exceptional equipment is needed because the packaging created from biopolymers can be manufactured using the Standard plastics processing technology.

B. Bioplastics for Consumer Electronics: The electronics industry has an outstanding opportunity with the use of bioplastics to upgrade their environmental suitability as they can be framed with related characteristics of conventional plastics without adjusting any machinery. As Bio-based are generally prepared at a temperature lesser than traditional products and the nature of electronics is more complicated than packaging, so poor temperature resistance issues have always arisen in the past. But the technology has made many developments in this area and making bioplastic an acceptable alternative.

C. Food Service: With the use of disposable cutlery and plates or thermoformed coffee cup lids, bioplastics are helping in minimizing the effect of waste on the environment. 

Also, other industries such as Medical, Aerospace, Automotive, and cosmetics are switching to the use of Bioplastics to reduce the waste that conventional plastics are having on the environment.

Positive Impact of Bioplastics:

A. Consumes less energy: They save energy in manufacturing. It doesn’t require fossil fuels to be recycled, and its manufacturing process takes less amount of energy.

B. Lesser Pollution: Frankly speaking, one of the positive impacts of using bioplastics is lesser pollution in the ecosystem. They produce Biodegradable waste, which helps in making the environment contamination free. They are produced from Renewable Resources.  

C. Carbon Emission Reduction: During the Manufacturing process of bioplastics, carbon in the air that is emitted is next to not contrary to the manufacturing of normal regular plastics, which almost emits four tons of carbon in the air contaminating the environment.

Bioplastics have earned a lot of demand because they are free of bisphenol A (BPA) or other additives that are harmful to health.  

Negative Impacts of Bioplastics:

A. Risk of Contamination: Biodegradable plastics and Non Biodegradable plastics must be thrown away in separate garbage bins, and not all people know how to distinguish between the two, so there is a risk of contamination. If both the plastics are mixed, then they are of no use as then we might not be able to recycle biodegradable plastics.

B. Need for Composters: To convert bioplastics into composters industrial composters might be needed and if this is not the primary preference of the government then some countries might not be having the required equipment and as a result, bioplastics will not be discarded properly.

C. Engineering Issues: Since bioplastics are Bio-based and that means their source of origin is organic, i.e. soybeans and corns. But these organic plants contain chemicals that can be harmful to the crops because of the pesticides that are sprayed on them and that can pollute or contaminate the final product.