Imagine throwing empty plastic water bottles into household compost bins, breaking down plastics and producing biogas and powering the home. What a great vision. Now, researchers show that bioplastics and certain mixtures can decompose under different conditions. It indicates that we have taken an important step towards this future solution. And they reported their results in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology.
White pollution is a global environmental problem, especially in the oceans – plastic fragments or plastic strips can damage or entangle animals and birds in the ocean, so that these animals die. Despite the increased levels of plastics recycling in many countries , but most plastic waste is still present in landfills or in our living environment. Scientists have developed biodegradable plastics, but they often lack the flexibility, strength or toughness of traditional plastics. Mixtures of different bioplastics can Improving these characteristics, but whether they are in harmony with the environment is uncertain. Tanja Narancic, Kevin O'Connor, Ramesh Babu Padamati and colleagues want to study the degradation of various bioplastics and their mixtures under various conditions.
The researchers studied the degradation of 15 different plastics and their mixtures under artificially managed conditions, ie degradation under compost and anaerobic conditions, and degradation in unmanaged environments, ie in soil and fresh water or seawater. Lactic acid (PLA) is one of the best-selling biodegradable plastics on the market, but it needs to be decomposed under high temperature conditions and cannot be composted at home. Surprisingly, under typical home composting conditions, PLA and poly The mixture of caprolactone (PCL) is fully degradable to carbon dioxide, biomass and water. Many individual plastics and mixtures have been tested to decompose under anaerobic digestion, which produces biogas and all plastics are degraded by industrial composting. Researchers say biodegradable plastic mixtures can create new possibilities for the management of plastic waste. However, under all soil and water conditions, there are only two plastics, polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) and thermoplastic starch. (TPS) can be completely decomposed. Therefore, biodegradable plastics are not the best way to solve plastic pollution, the researchers pointed out that biodegradable Material must be effectively managed after consumer use.