Abstract
Biodegradation of plastics and ecotoxicity testing: when should it be done.
Highlights
Most biodegradable plastics are waterinsoluble solid materials under normal environmental conditions (Bohlmann, 2005)
A reduction in molecular weight and a loss of material properties has happened but without weight loss (Eldsäter et al, 2000) The missing mass has been converted into CO2 and H2O
The number of macromolecules metabolized after 16 days, when the 1 g cube has reached a nominal biodegradation level of 39%, is 390 times higher than the number of macromolecules metabolized from a 1 mg totally biodegraded (100%) sample in 100 days
Summary
Most biodegradable plastics are waterinsoluble solid materials under normal environmental conditions (Bohlmann, 2005). In order to understand what happened at the cube at molecular level in the first 16 days of biodegradation we must consider the following reasoning: FIGURE 1 | Biodegradation “shrinks” the plastic cube by means of surface erosion.
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