Rising concern towards health and environmental menace caused by plastic wastes has fascinated scientists and chemists to find out greener and sustainable alternatives to conventional plastics. The conventional plastics are produced from crude oil and fossil fuels and ever-increasing demand of plastics results in depletion of these natural resources. Moreover, due to non-biodegradable in nature they persist in environment for a long time. A novel, eco-friendly and sustainable substitute to the traditional petro based plastic is biodegradable plastic which can be obtained from renewable and biogenic raw materials such as biomass, starch, wood pulp and vegetable oils. The utilization of renewable sources, their similar applications as conventional plastics, biodegradability, nontoxic properties and high recyclability are the major advantages for the use of biodegradable plastics. They are used for a large variety of applications in various sectors such as, packing, textiles, consumer goods, agriculture and horticulture, automotive and transport, coatings and adhesives, construction, electrical and electronics, medical, food packaging etc. In this mini review various biodegradable plastics, their attainable properties and applications in a wide variety of fields are summarized.
The marvellous and versatile properties of synthetic plastics make them an indispensable part of human lives. But in the recent years, plastic pollution has become the biggest environmental concern for the whole world globally. Environmental distress over plastic pollution associated with a rising debate over fossil fuel dependence and abatement have brought the attention of researchers towards finding a suitable alternative to plastics i.e., bioplastic. Bioplastics are specially designed to have lower carbon footprint, less dependent on natural resources, energy efficiency, environmental safety and sustainability. These are bio-resources based polymers which have the potential of substituting conventional petroleum-based plastics. This review article summarizes need for developing eco-friendly alternative to plastics, bioplastics, importance of bioplastic, advantages of bioplastics over plastics and current trends in production of bioplastics. It also highlights types of bioplastics based on various sources and a variety of bioplastic materials such as starch, cellulose, chitosan, chitin, polyhydroxyalkanoates, polylactic acid, Bio-PE, Bio-PET, Bio-PBS, etc., their synthesis, applications and biodegradability. A comparative analysis of both natural and bio-based polymers in term of their availability, nature, structure, properties such as thermal stability, biodegradability, tensile strength, etc. has also been highlighted.
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