Biobased and Biodegradable Polymer Materials: Rationale, Drivers, and Technology Exemplars

Biobased and biodegradable plastics can form the basis for an environmentally preferable, sustainable alternative to current materials based exclusively on petroleum feedstocks. These biobased materials offer value in the sustainability/life-cycle equation by being part of the biological carbon cycle, especially as it relates to carbon-based polymeric materials such as plastics, water soluble polymers and other carbonbased products like lubricants, biodiesel, and detergents. This global carbon cycle vis-à-vis managing carbon efficiently and in an environmentally responsible manner is discussed. Identification and quantification of biobased content uses radioactive C-14 signature. Biopolymers are generally capable of being utilized by living matter (biodegraded), and so can be disposed in safe and ecologically sound ways through disposal processes (waste management) like composting, soil application, and biological wastewater treatment. Single use, short-life, disposable products can be engineered to be biboased and biodegradable. The need for such products to be fully biodegradable in a defined time frame in the selected disposal infrastructure as opposed to degradable or partially biodegradable is reviewed. Emerging ASTM and International consensus standards on biobased content, and biodegradability is presented. The manufacture of starch foam and starch bioplastics is discussed as technology exemplars for biobased and biodegradable products.