TY - JOUR
T1 - Biodegradability of synthetic plastics and polymeric materials
T2 - An illusion or reality in waste managements?
AU - Wu, Elizabeth Ka Wing
AU - Gu, Ji Dong
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Urban Development Scientific Publishing Pte. Ltd.. All rights reserved.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Petroleum-based plastics are an indispensable part of our daily life now because they are flexible, convenient, light weight, waterproof, and also have good mechanical strength and economical. They are especially suitable in products packaging, but they accumulate in soils, rivers and oceans, resulting in undesirable environmental and ecological hazards. Conventional plastics wastes in landfills occupy a much higher proportion of space because of their light-weight and extremely low biodegradation rate under anaerobic conditions. Composting is a treatment process to deal with biodegradable plastics (BPs) wastes and diverts a fraction of the wastes from landfilling to provide a feasible solution to the waste management problem. Biodegradability and degradation rate of plastics products depend on the fundamental chemical characteristics of the specific plastics mainly while environmental conditions and the establishment of an active degrading population of microorganisms contribute to a small extent of the fate of plastics after disposal. As the biodegradation rate varies among different plastics, a group of testing methods are available for assessing the degradability of different plastics and their products. Plasticizers in plastics and polymeric materials deserve a special attention up on their dispersal and ecological impact because of their endocrine-disrupting activity. The widely used phthalate esters are biodegradable by indigenous microorganisms in the environments, but the large quantity of them used is a serious issue to the environment and ecological health. However, there is an apparent cost difference between biodegradable and synthetic plastics, which hinder the commercialization of biodegradable ones for daily use. Separation of waste collection and education can contribute to the plastic waste management. It is unrealistic that biodegradable plastics are the solution to the problems facing today’s society on waste management. The ultimate goal is to reduce the use by society members so that amount of waste generated can be reduced so that waste products can be reduced from the sources.
AB - Petroleum-based plastics are an indispensable part of our daily life now because they are flexible, convenient, light weight, waterproof, and also have good mechanical strength and economical. They are especially suitable in products packaging, but they accumulate in soils, rivers and oceans, resulting in undesirable environmental and ecological hazards. Conventional plastics wastes in landfills occupy a much higher proportion of space because of their light-weight and extremely low biodegradation rate under anaerobic conditions. Composting is a treatment process to deal with biodegradable plastics (BPs) wastes and diverts a fraction of the wastes from landfilling to provide a feasible solution to the waste management problem. Biodegradability and degradation rate of plastics products depend on the fundamental chemical characteristics of the specific plastics mainly while environmental conditions and the establishment of an active degrading population of microorganisms contribute to a small extent of the fate of plastics after disposal. As the biodegradation rate varies among different plastics, a group of testing methods are available for assessing the degradability of different plastics and their products. Plasticizers in plastics and polymeric materials deserve a special attention up on their dispersal and ecological impact because of their endocrine-disrupting activity. The widely used phthalate esters are biodegradable by indigenous microorganisms in the environments, but the large quantity of them used is a serious issue to the environment and ecological health. However, there is an apparent cost difference between biodegradable and synthetic plastics, which hinder the commercialization of biodegradable ones for daily use. Separation of waste collection and education can contribute to the plastic waste management. It is unrealistic that biodegradable plastics are the solution to the problems facing today’s society on waste management. The ultimate goal is to reduce the use by society members so that amount of waste generated can be reduced so that waste products can be reduced from the sources.
KW - Biodegradable plastics
KW - Composting
KW - Endocrine-disrupting activity
KW - Landfill
KW - Phthalateester
KW - Plasticizer
KW - Plastics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104576999&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.26789/AEB.2020.02.003
DO - 10.26789/AEB.2020.02.003
M3 - 文章
AN - SCOPUS:85104576999
SN - 2382-6436
VL - 5
SP - 9
EP - 27
JO - Applied Environmental Biotechnology
JF - Applied Environmental Biotechnology
IS - 2
ER -