Abstract
In the last 50 years, plastics has become a favorite industry for packaging materials for their ease of manufacture and excellent performance. The advancement of food, electronics, automobile, medical and agricultural industries has increased the demand for packaging and casing materials made of large hydrocarbon polymers. Since plastics show resistance to biodegradation, they pose considerable threats to the environment. Degradable plastics and biopolymers offer promising solutions to this problem. Degradable plastics can be easily absorbed in the environment while exhibiting the properties of conventional plastics. There are three types of biopolymers according to their source: biomass extracted polymers, synthesized from microorganisms and produced from bio-derived monomers. Biodegradable plastics are commonly used in one-off packaging such as crockery, food service containers and cutlery. Although biodegradable plastics can replace conventional plastics in a lot of applications, their performance and cost are sometimes problematic. This chapter analyses the growth of the degradable plastic industry and explores their potential applications.
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