Bio- and oxo-degradable plastics: Insights on facts and challenges

The global accumulation of single-use plastic bags made from nonbiodegradable plastics is the most concerning environmental issue nowadays. The utilization of biodegradable materials is a choice to reduce the environmental impact resulting from the use of plastic products. The utilization of renewable resources to produce fully biodegradable plastics is among the technologies used to overcome petroleum plastic's negative impact. On the other hand, the utilization of oxo-biodegradable plastics where prodegradant additives are incorporated in conventional plastics to promote their degradation under certain conditions has recently received much attention. This review discusses the types and challenges that face the implementation of biodegradable plastics technology that uses renewable resources. This review also covers the debate addressed in the literature about the biodegradability fate of oxo-biodegradable plastic in the air, compost, soil, landfill, and marine. A comparative study included the potential published literature in the last 10 years was performed. Based on the discussed evidence in this review, it can be concluded that all literature agrees that the addition of pro-oxidant/prodegradants can accelerate the degradation of oxo-plastics to small fragments. However, the complete biodegradation of oxo-plastics by microorganisms remains in doubt. On the other hand, biopolymers produced from natural resources seem to be the future direction for plastics manufacturing especially single-use plastic bags.

Automated summary

The global environmental issue of single-use plastic bags made from nonbiodegradable plastics has led to a focus on the use of biodegradable materials to reduce environmental impact. While oxo-biodegradable plastics have gained attention, there is still uncertainty regarding their complete biodegradation by microorganisms.