Bioplastic Essay

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ApplicationsBiodegradable bioplastics are used for disposable items, such as packaging and catering items (crockery, cutlery, pots, bowls, straws). Biodegradable bioplastics are also often used for organic waste bags, where they can be composted together with the food or green waste. Some trays and containers for fruit, vegetables, eggs and meat, bottles for soft drinks and dairy products and blister foils for fruit and vegetables are manufactured from bioplastics. Nondisposable applications include mobile phone casings, carpet fibres, and car interiors, fuel line and plastic pipe applications, and new electroactive bioplastics are being developed that can be used to carry electrical current.[3] In these areas, the goal is not biodegradability, but to create items from sustainable resources. [edit] Plastic types[edit] Starch-based plasticsConstituting about 50 percent of the bioplastics market, thermoplastic starch, such as Plastarch Material, currently represents the most important and widely used bioplastic. Pure starch possesses the characteristic of being able to absorb humidity, and is thus being used for the production of drug capsules in the pharmaceutical sector. Flexibiliser and plasticiser such as sorbitol and glycerine are added so the starch can also be processed thermo-plastically. By varying the amounts of these additives, the characteristic of the material can be tailored to specific needs (also called "thermo-plastical starch"). Simple starch plastic can be made at home.[4] Industrially, starch based bioplastics are often blended with biodegradable polyesters. These blends are mainly starch/polycaprolactone[5] or starch/Ecoflex[6] (polybutylene adipate-co-terephthalate produced by BASF[7] ). These blends remain compostables. Other producers, such as Roquette, have developed another strategy based on starch/polyeolefine blends. These blends

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