Degradation of Bioplastics under the Influence of Several Environmental conditions

Abstract

The increasing threats of plastics to the natural environment encouraged the production of bio-plastics from renewable biomass resources. The premium quality of bio-plastics are mainly produced by treating starch with glycerol. Plastics are basically non-biodegradable synthetic or semi synthetic products. This study aims at analyzing the degradation patterns of bio-plastics. The bio-plastics are ecologically less toxic than the synthetic plastic materials. The bio-plastics can degrade in several environmental conditions including aquatic environment, compost and soil. The bioplastic materials are buried in composite soil or loam sand to analyze degradation activity by taking photographic data and measuring the weight. Effect of weather conditions on the degradation activity was analyzed by recording different weather conditions including temperature, humidity, rainfall sunshine intensity and duration of sunlight. The comparative results portrayed the degradation activity of bio-plastics which was accomplished through hydrophilic enzymes. The initial regenerating material absorbs moisture of soil after saturation and the weight was increased up to 87%. The weight of bio-plastics reduced steadily after the initiation of decomposition. Invasion of soil microorganisms enhance the degradation activity. The environmental features including rainfall, humidity and sunlight intensity also affects the disintegration of bioplastics. The increased intensity of sunshine increased the microbial activity of soil which in turn increased the rate of degradation of bio-plastics.