what is bio-based plastic or bioplastics
Unlike fossil-fuel plastics / petrol-based polymers are derived from petroleum, Bioplastics are plastic materials produced from renewable biomass sources. Those biomass sources are basically natural polymers, such as starches, wood chips, vegetable fats and oils and lactic acid etc.
The types of bio-based plastics mainly are:
- Starch-Based Bioplastics: complex blends of starch with biodegradable or compostable plastics such as polylactic acid(PLA), polybutylene adipate terephthalate(PBAT), polybutylene succinate(PBS), polycaprolactone(PCL), and polyhydroxyalkanoates(PHAs).
- Cellulose-Based Bioplastics: Produced using cellulose acetate or nitrocellulose and their derivatives.
- Protein-Based Bioplastics: Produced using protein sources such as wheat gluten, casein, and milk.
- Aliphatic Polyesters: The aliphatic biopolyesters are collection of biobased polyesters including polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) like the poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB), polyhydroxyvalerate (PHV) and polyhydroxyhexanoate(PHH)etc, where Polylactic acid(PLA) is the most popular material among those.
