Biodegradable plastics making inroads into the global market

摘要

Biodegradable plastics derived from agricultural feedstocks are a new generation of materials capable of reducing the environmental impact in terms of energy consumption and green-house effect in specific applications to perform as traditional plastics when in use and completely biodegrade within a composting cycle through the action of living organisms when engineered to be biodegradable. These new materials from renewable resources offer a possible alternative to traditional materials when recycling is unpractical or not economical or when environmental impact has to be minimized.