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Review
. 2021 Jan 7;14(1):56-72.
doi: 10.1002/cssc.202002044. Epub 2020 Oct 28.

Biodegradable Plastics: Standards, Policies, and Impacts

Layla Filiciotto  1 , Gadi Rothenberg  1
Affiliations
Review

Biodegradable Plastics: Standards, Policies, and Impacts

Layla Filiciotto et al. ChemSusChem. .

Abstract

Plastics are ubiquitous in our society. They are in our phones, clothes, bottles, and cars. Yet having improved our lives considerably, they now threaten our environment and our health. The associated carbon emissions and persistency of plastics challenge the fragile balance of many ecosystems. One solution is using biodegradable plastics. Ideally, such plastics are easily assimilated by microorganisms and disappear from our environment. This can help reduce the problems of climate change, microplastics, and littering. However, biodegradable plastics are still only a tiny portion of the global plastics market and require further efforts in research and commercialization. Here, a critical overview of the state of the art of biodegradable plastics is given. Using a material flow analysis, the challenges of the plastic market are highlighted, and with it the large market potential of biodegradable plastics. The environmental and socio-economic impact of plastics, government policies, standards and certifications, physico-chemical properties, and analytical techniques are covered. The Review concludes with a personal outlook on the future of bioplastics, based on our own experience with their development and commercialization.

Keywords: biodegradable; economy; policy; polymers; sustainable chemistry.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Various fates for petro‐based and bio‐based plastics, including landfill, recycling, and environmental degradation.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Plastic production by country in 2019. NAFTA: North America Free Trade Agreement (Canada, Mexico, and United States); CIS: Commonwealth of Independent States (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Plastic production by sector in Europe. Others include medical appliances, furniture, and machine building.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Socio‐economic impact categories for biodegradable plastics and positive or negative change of different indicators.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Sankey diagram showing the MFA for fossil‐carbon‐based, bio‐degradable, bio‐based, and CO2‐based plastics in 2019. All values are in millions of tonnes.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Biodegradability equipment (Respicond™) at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) of the University of Amsterdam. The setup consists of 96 parallel respirometers in a temperature‐controlled water bath under dark conditions. Photo by L. Filiciotto.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Sample form, conditions, and analytical techniques for assessing biodegradability of plastics.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Key properties and processes that induce (bio)degradation of different chemical groups.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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