Environmentally safe biodegradable plastics

Abstract

Today, many kinds of and large amounts of synthetic plastics are produced mainly from limited fossil resources, namely, petroleum oil. These materials are indispensable for our lives and industries, but they can cause problems in the earth’s environment and will cause the exhaustion of fossil oil. Biodegradable polymers that are producible from renewable plant resources are expected to become alternative plastic materials to solve such problems. In this review, the production, properties and biodegradation of these biodegradable plastics are discussed.