Bioplastic for future: A review then and now

Abstract

Petrochemical based plastics have been widely used as packaging materials, as they have good barrier properties, stiffness, tensile strength & tear strength. Although in great demand plastics have many disadvantages like very low water vapour transmission rate, non- biodegradability etc. which further causes environmental pollution. Keeping in mind about the pollution and harm caused to the nature, newer concepts about the use of bio-plastics came into force. Bio-plastics are produced from the biological sources such as potato, potato peels, corn, sugarcane, wheat, rice, banana peels etc. These plastics are environment friendly & biodegradable, and are safer option than the petroleum-based plastics. These biodegradable plastics break down into carbon dioxide, water & inorganic compounds and degrade completely. The time-line, sources and other important details about the bio-plastics have been presented in this review paper.