Abstract
Biodegradable plastics can make an important contribution to the struggle against increasing environmental pollution through plastics. However, biodegradability is a material property that is influenced by many factors. This review provides an overview of the main environmental conditions in which biodegradation takes place and then presents the degradability of numerous polymers. Polylactide (PLA), which is already available on an industrial scale, and the polyhydroxyalkanoates polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) and polyhydroxybutyrate-co-valerate (PHBV), which are among the few plastics that have been proven to degrade in seawater, will be discussed in detail, followed by a summary of the degradability of further petroleum-, cellulose-, starch-, protein- and CO2-based biopolymers and some naturally occurring polymers.
Highlights
Plastics have become an indispensable part of everyday life
For the polymerization of polyethylene carbonate (PEC), carbon dioxide is copolymerized with ethylene oxide instead of propylene oxide
Examples are fibers of silk that are biodegradable in aqueous solutions [121,122] and the scaffold substance chitin that biodegrades slowly in soil [123,124,125].Chitosan is very similar to chitin and needs several months to biodegrade in soil [123,125,126]
Summary
Plastics have become an indispensable part of everyday life. The various strengths of plastics come into their own in a wide variety of applications—packaging, clothing, car tires and much more. In the media [3], it is repeatedly reported that polymers, and plastics, would need several hundred years to be degraded in the environment. It is not yet known which studies these statements are based on, and the authors assume that these are estimates only. The biodegradability of some biopolymers, as well as plastics and synthetic fibers based on them, has nothing to do with whether their carbon source originates from fossil fuel or renewable sources [4]. In order to be sure that the produced CO2 is derived directly from the degraded polymer, and not from the surrounding biomass, it is possible to use polymer variants with 13 C-labeled carbon in all its monomers. The definition and the influencing factors of biological degradation will be discussed
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