Bioplastics from Biopolymers: An Eco-Friendly and Sustainable Solution of Plastic Pollution

Abstract

Global production of synthetic polymers such as plastics is nearly 390 million tons/year, which is creating enormous challenges on a number of frontiers including environment, sustainable development and health. The non-degradability of plastics and petrochemical-based polymers is a huge environmental crisis despite being an industry with billions of dollars share in global economy. Water pollution due to synthetic plastics and related products is evident from the fact that 7 million tons of land based plastic debris enters oceans and water bodies annually endangering the sea life which is not only a concern for the aquatic environment but also for the sea food industry and eventually to human health. Eco-friendly and sustainable polymers from a number of living organisms can be used as an alternative to synthetic polymers. Biopolymers such as starch, cellulose, pectin, keratin, chitin, gelatin and polyhydroxyalkanoates can be obtained from natural biomass sources. All these biopolymers exhibit suitable physiochemical, thermal and mechanical properties that make them suitable for the production of bioplastics that are biobased and biodegradable in nature. Use of biopolymers is not limited to bioplastics but ranges from sustainable production of other products such as bio-implants, biofuels, and medicinal products. In this review, we have discussed comprehensively about the sources of biopolymers, their extraction and purification methods and the reasons that make them efficient biopolymers for the environment.