2024 AIChE Annual Meeting
(405c) Can Biodegradable Plastics Alleviate Single-Use Plastic Waste Problem? Towards a Net Zero Plastics Footprint!
Author
Mohanty, A. K. - Presenter, University of Guelph
Plastic has become an integral part of our society. We use plastic for a number of uses from food packaging to high-end uses in transpiration and medical products. At present around 450 million tons of plastics are produced per year globally which is expected to exceed 1-billion tons production annually by 2050. Although we avail all the comforts from plastics the waste generated after their uses has created huge environmental concern. Most of the plastics produced are use in packaging sector; 50 percent of which is in single-use plastics uses including plastics bags, cutlery, straws, take-away container to name a few. The short lifetime of these plastics ranging from few hours to days to months create waste disposal management concern that is crucial and challenging. Many counties across the globe has banned and/or in process to ban their single-use-plastic uses which are not recyclable ending in land-filling thus producing huge green house gas emission. Do we have a viable alternatives? Biodegradable and compostable (both industrial and home compostable) plastics and composites show promise in alleviating such plastic waste problem. However an integrated approach is needed to adopt the required policy, incentivises and the opportunities for the proper end-of-life option for those biodegradable products. The successful integration of such biodegradable materials can relieve the environmental concern around single-use plastic use that can support circular economy; a move towards zero plastic footprint.