Siracusa Valentina
Department of Chemical Science, University of Catania, Viale A. Doria 6, 95125 Catania, Italy.
Polymers (Basel). 2019 Jun 20;11(6):1066. doi: 10.3390/polym11061066.
Over the last ten years, the demand of biodegradable polymers has grown at an annual rate of 20-30%. However, the market share is about less than 0.1% of the total plastic production due to their lower performances, higher price and limited legislative attention in respect to the standard materials. The biodegradability as a functional added property is often not completely perceived from the final consumers. However, the opportunity to use renewable resources and to reduce the dependency from petroleum resources could become an incentive to accelerate their future growth. Renewable raw materials, coming from industrial wastes such as oilseed crops, starch from cereals and potatoes, cellulose from straw and wood, etc., can be converted into chemical intermediates and polymers, in order to substitute fossil fuel feedstock. The introduction of these new products could represent a significant contribution to sustainable development. However, the use of renewable resources and the production of the bioplastics are no longer a guarantee for a minimal environmental impact. The production process as well as their technical performances and their ultimate disposal has to be carefully considered. Bioplastics are generally biodegradable, but the diffusion of the composting technology is a prerequisite for their development. Efforts are required at industry level in order to develop less expensive and high performance products, with minimal environmental impact technologies.
在过去十年中,可生物降解聚合物的需求以每年20%至30%的速度增长。然而,由于其性能较低、价格较高以及相对于标准材料而言立法关注度有限,其市场份额约占塑料总产量的不到0.1%。生物降解性作为一种功能性附加属性,最终消费者往往并未完全认识到。然而,使用可再生资源以及减少对石油资源的依赖,可能成为加速其未来增长的一个激励因素。来自工业废料的可再生原料,如油料作物、谷物和土豆的淀粉、秸秆和木材的纤维素等,可转化为化学中间体和聚合物,以替代化石燃料原料。这些新产品的推出可能对可持续发展做出重大贡献。然而,使用可再生资源和生产生物塑料并不能保证对环境的影响最小。生产过程以及它们的技术性能和最终处置都必须仔细考虑。生物塑料通常是可生物降解的,但堆肥技术的普及是其发展的一个先决条件。工业层面需要做出努力,以开发成本更低、性能更高且对环境影响最小的技术的产品。