Shrikant Athavale

Ebook on Pla Biodegradable Plastic Shrikant Athavale

1. Polylactic Acid: A Sustainable Bioplastics Packaging OptionBackground Information: In recent years, one packaging solution touted as a 'sustainable' option that has been emerging in Asia is Bioplastics and biodegradable and/or compostable packaging. But what exactly are Bioplastics and what does it mean when a company says its products are biodegradable and/or compostable?What are Bioplastics?There are many definitions for bioplastics, but essentially, a bioplastic is a plastic material that is either derived from biological raw materials (known as being biobased), or biodegradable, or both. As with all sustainability issues, there is some debate over which type of bioplastic is the most sustainable. Generally though, the most sustainable type of bioplastic is the one that is both biobased (sustainable front-of-pipe material source) and biodegradable (environmentally-friendly waste management at end-of-pipe). Biological raw materials are derived from biomass, such as corn, sugarcane, cassava, vegetable fats and oil, agricultural waste etc. Biomass is renewable, because it is of agricultural/bio-based origin. It doesn't really matter what the plant source is; what is needed is the sugars from the plant. Through the process of photosynthesis, every plant converts carbon from CO2 in the atmosphere () as it grows, into materials such as lignin, cellulosic, and simple or complex sugars (e.g. starch)