8 - Bioplastics from agricultural waste

Abstract

The topic on bioplastics is of considerable interest with respect to environmental pollution caused by non-biodegradable plastics. Great efforts have been made in producing biomaterials with minimum negative impacts towards the environment. Bioplastics accounted 1% of the 335 million tonnes of plastic production in a year. The market and demand are continuously growing as the development of new biopolymers, applications and products are emerging. The objective of the review work reported in this chapter is to provide recent advances and challenges in the utilization of agricultural waste (agro-waste) or by-products in the production of bioplastics; namely polylactic acid, thermoplastics starch and chitosan bioplastic. Various agro waste that has potential to be used as bioplastics are bagasse, corn cob, cellulose, sago pith waste and chitin. The trend of agro-waste as the source for bioplastics production is rising due to the relatively lower cost and easily available. However, the utilization of agro-waste for development of bioplastics is still limited due to the unsystematic and low cost-effective waste management system, limited data on waste generation, and low production yield compared to food feedstock. It is believed that the prospect of agro-waste as feedstock for bioplastics will improve with the advancement in biotechnology and government intervention. Government, public, industrialists and researchers should synergize to realize the commercialization of agro waste-derived bioplastics.