A Review of Biodegradable Polymer Blends and Polymer Composite for Flexible Food Packaging Application

Abstract

The introduction of plastic materials has revolutionised our society. However, excessive use of traditional, non-biodegradable plastic materials, especially for packaging applications, has created many environmental issues. During the past few decades, many biodegradable polymers, bio-based and petroleum-based, have been developed to address the above problem. Several research has been carried out on various biodegradable polymer blends and composites. However, their widespread application is still limited. This paper gives an overview and progress made on biodegradable polymers for flexible packaging applications, a critical analysis of their performance characteristics and recommendations on priority areas for further research. This Paper shows that, among the polyesters, though PHAs is most attractive concerning biodegradability, its low elongation at break, narrow processing temperature and high production cost limit their use for flexible packaging application. For flexible packaging applications, PBS (Polybutylene succinate) is better than PLA (Polylactic acid) and PHAs (Polyhydroxyalkonates), considering thermal characteristics and tensile elongation. In addition, PBS is biodegradable in compost, soil, lake and seawater, though its rate of biodegradation is reported to be slower compared to PHAs.