To do:

Introduction - kryss ok
History - renely ok
Methods- eren ok
Benefits- sharia ok
Concerns- ken ok
Conclusions- tomas
BIOLOGY

Benefits

This point appears self-evident given the topic of our conversation. However the sustainability

of biodegradable packaging is one of its main advantages.

The majority of the materials utilized fall into one of the three sustainability categories of

reduce, reuse, and recycle.

Reduce focuses on using stronger, yet more lightweight, materials that may accomplish the

same task as more heavy-duty ones while requiring less. Reuse concentrates efforts on making

things that can be utilized again after their initial purpose has been fulfilled. Developing

transportation materials that are more durable and secure encourages people and companies

to recycle each item.

Clearly, the goal of recycling is to create goods that are primarily constructed of recycled

materials. The client or the company can then recycle the packaged item.
History

Previous to the discovery of petroleum-based plastics, all the plastic materials used were of

natural origin. Olmecs, Maya, and Aztecs were using materials like natural latex and rubber

already in 1500 BC. In 1855, the first-ever man-made plastic was made from cellulose, so it

actually was a bioplastic. The discovery was made by Alexander Parkes and he called it

Parkesine. Nowadays, the material is known as celluloid. In 1907 Bakelite was invented. This

was the first fully synthetic plastic. It was discovered by Belgian-American chemist Leo

Baekeland. This was the first synthetic plastic to be mass-produced. The mass-production of

synthetic plastics was mastered after 1930, and there was a boom of petroleum-based plastics

after World War II in an effort to recover the economy. In 1926, Frech scientist Maurice

Lemoigne discovered what is now considered the first known bioplastic made from bacteria

called polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB). Unfortunately, his discovery was neglected for several

decades, because at that time petroleum was abundant and cheap and the pollution was not

yet considered a problem. In 1930 Henry Ford started to use some bioplastics made from soy

oil in order to manufacture some car parts. However, he stopped using it after WWII as the

synthetic plastics became widely available and cheap. In the decade of 1970s, there was a

petroleum crisis that sparked interest in looking for solutions that didn’t require oil as the raw

material, as the oil was scarce and expensive. In 1975, Japanese scientists discovered a bacteria

(Flavobacterium) that was able to break down nylon, this is how the principle of biodegradable

plastics was conceived. The company Novamont was funded in 1990. They are the current

leader in bioplastic production. MATER-BI is its flagship family of biodegradable and

compostable bioplastics. In 2010 first bioplastics made from seaweed were invented. This is a
big step, as the plantation of seaweed does not require chemical pesticides, fertilizers, and

land. The resulting bioplastic is rigid, durable and at the end of the life cycle, it is compostable

and becomes a natural fertilizer. Nowadays, companies and laboratories of all sizes keep

researching the field. Many of them are already producing biodegradable and compostable

alternatives to petroleum-based plastics. Consumers and even companies prefer to purchase

safer and more environmentally friendly products as the public environmental conscience is

increasing.

Concerns

Environmental concerns associated with bioplastics include the potential for increased

greenhouse gas emissions. Bioplastics are often promoted as a more environmentally friendly

alternative to traditional plastics because they are made from renewable resources. However,

the production of bioplastics can result in increased greenhouse gas emissions due to the

energy required to produce and transport them. Additionally, bioplastics may not be as

biodegradable as they are marketed to be. Some bioplastics require specific conditions for

degradation, such as high temperatures and humidity, which may not be present in landfills.

This can lead to bioplastics taking just as long to degrade as traditional plastics. In conclusion,

while bioplastics have the potential to be a more environmentally friendly alternative to

traditional plastics, there are ethical, social, and environmental concerns that must be

addressed. These concerns include the impact on food security, the use of GMOs, the impact on

local communities, and the potential for increased greenhouse gas emissions. It is important to

carefully consider these concerns before widely adopting bioplastics for food packaging.
Methods

Bioplastics are plastic materials produced from renewable biomass sources, such as vegetable fats and

oils, corn starch, straw, woodchips, sawdust, recycled food waste, etc. Some bioplastics are obtained by

processing directly from natural biopolymers including polysaccharides (e.g. starch, cellulose, chitosan

and alginate) and proteins (e.g. soy protein, gluten and gelatin), while others are chemically synthesised

from sugar derivatives (e.g. lactic acid) and lipids (oils and fats) from either plants or animals, or

biologically generated by fermentation of sugars or lipids. In contrast, common plastics, such as fossil-

fuel plastics (also called petro-based polymers) are derived from petroleum or natural gas. In

microorganisms, recombination occurs via three parasexual processes: conjugation, transduction, and

transformation. Translocatable DNA segments can also result in internal genetic rearrangements

(insertion sequences or transposons). Conjugation is the transfer of DNA from one cell to another.

Transduction occurs from the host cell to the recipient cell via bacteriophage mediation. Competent

cells uptake and express naked DNA during transformation. Competence develops naturally, but it can

also be induced by physical and chemical changes in the environment. In the laboratory, it can be

induced by cold calcium chloride treatment, protoplasting, electroporation, and heat shock. As

previously stated, genetic recombination was largely ignored in industry, owing to the low frequency of

recombination. However, the use of protoplast fusion significantly altered the situation. After 1980,

there was a surge of interest in using genetic recombination to create important microbial products such

as antibiotics. Today, recombination frequencies have risen to more than 10-1 in some cases4, and

strain improvement programs routinely include protoplast fusion between different mutant lines.

Yoneda5 demonstrated the power of recombination by recombining individual mutations, each of which

increased -amylase production by two to seven-fold in Bacillus subtilis. A genetically transformed strain

containing all five mutations produced 250-fold more -amylase than the starting strain.