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What is biodegradable plastic?

Degradable plastics are a class of polymers whose products meet the required performance standards during their shelf life and, after use, break down under natural environmental conditions into substances that are harmless to the environment. Consequently, they are also referred to as environmentally degradable plastics. Polymer degradation refers to the process by which the macromolecular chains of a polymer are cleaved due to chemical and physical factors. When polymers are exposed to environmental conditions such as oxygen, water, radiation, chemicals, pollutants, mechanical forces, insects, and microorganisms, the resulting chain‑cleavage process is known as environmental degradation. Today, several new types of plastics are available, including photodegradable plastics, biodegradable plastics, fully degradable plastics that combine photodegradation, oxidation, and biodegradation, carbon‑dioxide‑based biodegradable plastics, and thermoplastic starch‑based degradable plastics. Biodegradable plastics can be used not only to manufacture various sports goods—such as fishing lines and golf tees—but also materials for agriculture, forestry, and aquaculture, including films, moisture‑retaining materials, and seedling‑bed substrates, as well as garbage bags and hygiene products like disposable diapers. Their potential applications are even broader, extending to cosmetic containers, toothbrushes, cushioning materials, packaging, shopping bags, and single‑use gloves. If safety concerns can be adequately addressed, they could also serve as food‑contact packaging. As a novel functional polymer material, biodegradable plastics find uses in packaging for fertilizers and pesticides, as well as in product‑packaging applications. In the future, they may also find applications in non‑plastic sectors such as adhesives and printing inks. With growing public concern over “white pollution” and the implementation of plastic‑restriction policies across provinces and municipalities, how to better leverage degradable plastics will become a critical issue for the market going forward.

10-13

2020

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