Bioplastics from biological substances

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• By Soumya Shetty

Bioplastics are biodegradable plastics that are derived from biological substances. There are a variety of materials that bioplastics can be made up of, such as starch, cellulose or other biopolymers. Polylactic acid (PLA) is the second most important bioplastic in the world in regard to consumption in volume, which is a transparent plastic produced from corn or dextrose. The plant starch (usually corn) is becoming nowadays a popular alternative to traditional petroleum-based plastics. Nowadays, bioplastics made of potato starch or banana starch are also available. New cellulose acetate bioplastics developed from agricultural wastes are of great use in the food industry and medicine. Other than these, bioplastics can also be produced from plants with the help of genetic engineering technology. For instance, the bacteria Alcaligenes eutrophus produces polyhydroxy butyrate (PHB), a biodegradable and renewable biopolymer; a gene of this bacteria that codes an enzyme responsible for the biosynthesis of PHB is being transferred to a plant for the production of biodegradable plastic. The yield of biodegradable plastic could be increased with genetic engineering because the plants or microbes do not have the ability to naturally produce sufficient yields for commercial applications.

Keywords: Bioplastics, Biodegradable, Plant, Technology, Bacteria, Genetic engineering, Renewable biopolymer

Image source:
Photo by Mendel Heit, available under Creative Commons 0 at https://www.flickr.com/photos/11576222@N00/4368444606/in/photolist-7E2qos-7DXzCP-7UCShg-7DXAv8-7DXAnt-8aoECQ-7E2py9-7DXC2t-7E2qaj-7DXBzp-7E2pK7-7DXzQF-7DXzMH-7DXBhB-7DXzLn-7E2pNu-MDLYLF-LGnHPb-cHdjGY-7biGjX-9j8eFT-7DXAsx-2iw2MYi-2gNVXAu-9Kav72-KGPLTY-7E2r6W-7E2qjh-7DXBWD-7E2q7L-S8BuSn-7DXBYk-7E2sej-7E2qPG-7DXApF-7DXzHt-7DXAPp-7DXABi-7DXBrV-7E2qdu-7E2rd9-7DXBDi-7DXzZx-7DXB9c-7DXBGM-7E2raf-7E2pAh-7E2rDW-7E2ruC-7E2qgb

Citation:
Soumya Shetty . Bioplastics from biological substances. The Torch. 2020. 1 (4).
Available from: https://www.styvalley.com/pub/magazines/torch/read/bioplastics-from-biological-substances/.

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