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Sustainable Bioplastics for Packaging

The document reviews the potential of biodegradable polymers as sustainable alternatives to synthetic plastics in packaging applications, highlighting their environmental benefits and unique properties. It discusses the sources of biopolymers, including agricultural and microbial origins, and emphasizes the importance of designing materials that meet specific packaging requirements. The paper also addresses the challenges of biodegradability and disposal methods, particularly in commercial versus residential composting settings.
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
17 views4 pages

Sustainable Bioplastics for Packaging

The document reviews the potential of biodegradable polymers as sustainable alternatives to synthetic plastics in packaging applications, highlighting their environmental benefits and unique properties. It discusses the sources of biopolymers, including agricultural and microbial origins, and emphasizes the importance of designing materials that meet specific packaging requirements. The paper also addresses the challenges of biodegradability and disposal methods, particularly in commercial versus residential composting settings.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Biodegradable Polymers for Sustainable Packaging Applications:

A Review

ABSTRACT

Stable life offered by the synthetic plastic and their nonrenewable source results in waste

disposal and environmental pollution. Bio degradable plastics can be developed from the synergic

combinations of agricultural biology and micro biology. Starch, cellulose based bio degradable zero

waste plastics can replace with the nonrenewable plastics with comparable packaging properties.

Packaging industries have wide applications and the requirement for each area is unique. Food

packaging industries requires shelf life improving characters while industrial packaging requires high

mechanical properties which can resist mechanical damaging. This paper reviews suitability factors

and emerging techniques for the improving packaging properties of bio plastics.

RESEARCH PROBLEM:

The term packaging also referred to product protection, security and improving usability allows

with provision for safe handling and use. Commonly used packaging materials are wood, paper, glass,

metals, plastic and composites. Plastics are widely used for packaging as it shows superior properties

like of no permeability, inert to environment, durability, lightness, stability and availability. These

properties of plastic also make them last in the environment forever and accumulate as solid waste,

if not recycled properly. Additives, plasticizers and colorants in plastic make serious environmental

issues during disposal of the same.

BIOPOLYMERS AS AN ALTERNATIVE PACKAGING MATERIAL

Bioplastics derived from renewable resources (which are biodegradable and less pollutant)

are thought to be a replacement for synthetic polymers. Biopolymers are mainly processed from

starch, proteins, cellulose, DNA, RNA and peptides. The monomer molecules of bio plastics are

sugar, nucleotides and amino acids. Bio based packaging materials require multistage processes

required in designing and manufacturing of bio-based packaging materials. Some of the preferable
properties a good packaging material shell possesses include permeability (gas and vapor), sealing

and resistance to chemicals, UV and light, transparency, mechanical properties, machinability. Cost

and availability are the key factors in any designing process of bio plastic. Finally, shelf life and

disposal method of the bioplastic should also be taken into account. Most products leave the

production facility with three levels of packaging

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Biopolymers are the polymers which derived from natural resources. Polymers which derived

from bio background are renewable, biodegradable, and mostly nontoxic. Bio polymers are produced

by biological systems such as plants, animals and micro-organisms or chemically synthesized from

biological starting materials such as sugar, starch, oils, and natural fats. The renewable bio mass feed

stock grown for preparing bio plastics helps to absorb Carbon dioxide and in turn improves the carbon

foot print. It is estimated that approximately 1 kg of petroleum based synthetic plastics generates

about 3-6 kg of CO2 whereas bio plastics derived from renewable agricultural resources can reduce

CO2 emissions by 30–80%. Bioplastics are often designed to biodegrade at the end of their useful

life, aided by fungi, bacteria and enzymes. Biodegradable bio plastic products can be processed at

commercial composting facilities for disposal but it is found to be not effective in smaller residential

compost piles. The key difference remains with the temperature where effective composting requires

a significant amount of heat to assist with the breakdown of molecules, and this level of heat is usually

generated only by commercial composting facilities.

SOURCES OF BIOPOLYMERS

Plants, animals, microorganisms, and agricultural wastes are examples of natural biological

sources of biopolymers. Plant sources, such as rice, maize, wheat, sorghum, yams, cassava,

potatoes, banana, tapioca, corn, cotton, and barley biopolymers can be produced chemically from

monomeric components, such as oils, sugars, and amino acids. Cattles are the most common animal

sources, while corals, sponges, fish, lobster, and shrimp are the most common marine sources. Algae,

fungus, and yeasts are the most common microbiological sources. Agro leftovers, paper wastes,
crops, green wastes, and wood wastes are carbohydrate-rich biomass-based sources. Triglycerides

are found in vegetable oils, such as sunflower, soybean, safflower, jojoba, rapeseed, castor, and

meadowfoam oil. Vegetable oils obtained from food producers, in particular, are excellent alternatives

for natural polymer synthesis. PHAs are a kind of biopolymer, secondary metabolites generated by

microbes and plants. PHAs are stored as inclusion bodies in bacteria and are generated and

aggregated intracellularly as transparent granules. These biopolymers are produced naturally and

degraded by microbial metabolisms, even though these biopolymers can be melted and shaped in

the same way as the chemical and synthetic thermoplastics.


REFERENCES

Baranwal, J., Barse, B., Fais, A., Delogu, G. L., & Kumar, A. (2022). Biopolymer: A
Sustainable Material for Food and Medical Applications. Polymers, 14(5), 983.
https://doi.org/10.3390/polym14050983
Renith , R., Rejeesh , C. R., & Ashok, A. (2016, January). Biodegradable Polymers for
Sustainable Packaging Applications: A Review [Review of Biodegradable Polymers
for Sustainable Packaging Applications: A Review].
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318531449_Biodegradable_Polymers
_for_Sustainable_Packaging_Applications_A_Review

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