[adimed]

Bioplastics or the biobased plastic means that the substance or product is either completely or partly derived from the biomass. Biomass utilized for bioplastics comes from plant source for example sugarcane, corn or cellulose. The phrase bioplastics encloses an entire family of materials that vary from conventional plastics to the extent that they are biobased, biodegradable or a combination of both. They are generally promoted as a green alternative to the regular plastics. Bioplastics were initially introduced during the 1980's. The thought behind it was to generate degradable plastics so that they could disintegrate and utilize less space in the landfills. But the idea failed because the modern landfills are usually sealed with impermeable protective liners so that no moisture, air or sunlight could penetrate and not much of the material is degraded. And the other important objective of manufacturing bioplastics was to decrease the utilization of petrochemicals in the production of plastics and replacing them with materials from renewable sources.

Bioplastics are shaping the evolution of plastics. The key advantages of biobased plastic products in comparison to their conventional ones are that they conserve fossil resources by utilizing biomass which annually regenerates and providing the unparallel potential of carbon neutrality (that is net zero carbon emission). Biodegradability is an additional property of certain types of bioplastics and they offer additional advantage of end of life disposals.

Bioplastics are not a single type of polymer but instead a family of materials that can differ significantly from one another. There are mainly 3 groups in the family of bioplastics, each of it with its own distinct features.

Biobased (completely or partially) non-biodegradable plastics: Plastics such as PE, PP or PET which are biobased (so-called drop-ins) and biobased technical performance polymers such as PTT or TPC-ET.

Biobased (completely or partially) and biodegradable plastics: Plastics such as PLA and PHA or PBS come under this category.
Fossil fuel based biodegradable plastics: Plastics that are based on fossil fuels and are biodegradable such as PBAT.