Nearly every material will biodegrade someday, given enough time. But the problem is that the length of the biodegradation process is highly dependent on environmental parameters such as humidity and temperature and it takes too long to completely degrade.

 

In case of plastics, it is known that many plastic items which are very common in our modern life can take up to hundreds of years to degrade in the ocean and 1,000 years to decompose in landfills. Even plastic bags we use in our everyday life take anywhere from 10 to 1,000 years to decompose, and plastic bottles can take 450 years or more.

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Furthermore, plastic waste releases toxic substances  into the environment when buried or incinerated. The toxic substances thus released are posing a threat to vegetation, human and animal health and environment as a whole. In contrast, biodegradable plastic is converted into water and carbon dioxide (CO2) over time with the help of micro-organisms.

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The biodegradable polymers can be classified according to their chemical composition, origin, synthesis method, processing method, etc.

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    ORIGIN                                            FAMILY                                                      EXAMPLES                                                                            REMARK

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Biomass                           Polysaccharides                                    Cellulose, Starch, Chitin, etc.                                         Price competitive

                                          Proteins                                                  Collagen, Gelatin, Albumin, Soya, Glutan                    High biodegradability, but weak physical properties

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Microorganisms             Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA)             Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB)                                           High price and difficult to process

                                                                                                           Poly (γ-glutamic acid) (γ-PGA)                                        Used primarily for medical purposes

                                                                                                           Poly (hydrobutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV)

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Petroleum Oil                 Polyesters                                               Poly (ԑ-caprolactone) (PCL)                                             Price competitive

                                                                                                           Poly (butylene succinate) (PBS)                                      Excellent processability and physical properties

                                                                                                           Poly (butylene succinate-co-adipate) (PBSA)

                                                                                                           Poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT)

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Bio-derived                     Polyesters                                               Poly (lactic acid) (PLA)

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Reference: Mpho Phillip Motloung, Vincent Ojijo, Jayita Bandyopadhyay and Suprakas Sinha Ray, Cellulose Nanostructure-Based Biodegradable Nanocomposite Foams: A Brief Overview on the Recent Advancements and Perspectives, Polymers 2019, 11, 4.

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Our biodegradable resins are blends based on PBAT and PLA.