Bioplastics

Noble Advances in Bioplastics

Bioplastics are plastics derived from renewable biomass sources, such as vegetable fats and oils, corn starch, or microbiota. Bioplastic can be made from agricultural byproducts and also from used plastic bottles and other containers using microorganisms. Common plastics, such as fossil-fuel plastics are derived from petroleum or natural gas. Production of such plastics tends to require more fossil fuels and to produce more greenhouse gases than the production of biobased polymers. Bioplastics are biobased, biodegradable, or both. The global bioplastics production capacity is set to grow 300%by 2018. Bioplastics have been designated a lead market by the European Commission. The bioplastic market’s immense growth will help drive the further evolution of a bioeconomy in Europe.