Bioplastic: an eco-friendly alternative to non-biodegradable plastic

The accumulation of non-biodegradable plastic waste in land and aquatic environments is expanding every day. According to data collected from various scientific reports, about 100-250 megatonnes of plastic waste arrives in the oceans annually. According to the Central Control Board of India (2019-2020), India produces about 3.5 million metric tonnes of plastic waste annually, while only 5-10% of the produced waste is recycled. The non-recycled plastic waste dumped into the environment either goes to landfills or directly goes to the sea, which disrupts the marine life of the ocean. We are highly dependent on plastic at household and industrial scales. Removal of plastic waste and lowering the use of hazardous and non-biodegradable plastics are the main challenges. Researchers and industrialists have come up with many ideas to lower the generation of non-biodegradable plastic waste and found that reusability is easier than degradability, while the use of bioplastics is the ultimate solution to tackle the plastic waste problem. Hence, developing eco-friendly alternative plastics without compromising physicochemical and mechanical properties is the need of the hour. An eco-friendly alternative to conventional or petrochemical plastics is bioplastics, which are environmentally safe, and reduce our dependency on fossil reserves. Therefore, this review focuses on eco-friendly bioplastics as an efficient alternative to non-biodegradable plastics. Among renewable and sustainable feedstocks available, vegetable oils are the most suitable resource for bioplastic production because of their renewability and economical nature. Hence, this study concluded that polyurethane-based polymers from vegetable oils are inherently more eco-friendly than most other plastics. & COPY; 2023 Society of Industrial Chemistry.

Automated summary

The accumulation of non-biodegradable plastic waste is a growing problem in both land and aquatic environments. Scientific reports indicate that 100-250 megatonnes of plastic waste enter the oceans annually. India alone produces around 3.5 million metric tonnes of plastic waste each year, with only a small percentage being recycled. The dumping of non-recycled plastic waste into the environment, particularly the sea, poses a significant threat to marine life. Finding eco-friendly alternatives and reducing plastic waste generation are crucial challenges.