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How is the production and biodegradation of PLA-based bioplastics more beneficial for the environment compared to PE, in terms of rate of decomposition and by-products?

Claim: Bioplastics are better for the environment than petroleum-based plastics.

Rationale:

Bioplastics are the solution to the ongoing issue of plastic waste worldwide that is suffocating and contaminating the environment. Bioplastics are biodegradable materials that are manufactured into commercial products from renewable resources such as sugarcane, corn, or yeast. There are two main types of bioplastics, polylactic acid (PLA) and polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA). PLA is made from sugars in corn starch, cassava or sugarcane and is both biodegradable as well as carbon neutral. PHA is made by microorganisms that produce plastics from organic materials and is biodegradable (Dhanraj et al., 2022).

Under the right conditions, bioplastics can be completely broken down into water, carbon dioxide and compost by microorganisms, in a matter of weeks to months. The development of bioplastics offers businesses with eco-friendly alternatives for packaging and products, especially disposable items like packaging, containers, straws, bags and bottles.

Petroleum-based plastic is the third most used petroleum derivative in the world, with 200 million tons of plastic being consumed globally each year. Petroleum-based plastics are artificial organic polymers, obtained from natural gas, oil or coal, and used in all aspects of everyday life. There are many different types of plastics, such as; polypropylene (PP), nylon, polyester (PS) polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polyethylene (PE), which is the most common plastic in the world. Each type of plastic has a special job, with PET and HDPE usually found in water, detergent bottles and milk jugs, PS is used to make insulation products or packaging, PVC is found in building materials and PP is found in flooring products.

Petroleum is a non-renewable and non-biodegradable source, taking more than 1000 years to decompose. The majority of plastic used today is petroleum-based, due to the ease of manufacturing methods involved in the processing of crude oil. Crude oil is turned into plastic through the extensive process of fractional distillation and polymerisation.

The main difference between these two materials is that plastics made from renewable resources can break down, whereas petroleum-based plastic will only ever break into smaller pieces. In fact, the Environmental Protection Authority reports that “every bit of (petroleum-based) plastic ever made still exists.” Petroleum-based plastics have been proven to have a high negative impact on the environment, throughout their entire life cycle. However, the majority of these effects relate to the rate of biodegradation of petroleum-based plastics. With 58% of plastic waste ending up in landfill or entering the natural environment, it may take up to 1000 years to decompose, leaching toxic substances into the soil and water, thus, injuring or poisoning marine animals and potentially humans.

In comparison, bioplastics are designed to degrade in the environment completely into microbial biomass, CO2 and H2O, in the ecosystem. With its biodegradation occurs within a matter of weeks to months in a variety of conditions; landfill, water and even composting at home. Thus enhanced specificity involves the improved rate of degradation which in turn the environment as the increased rate being is more advantageous as it slows the rate of degradation ion as in the case of PE.

The Research Question: How is the production and biodegradation of PLA-based bioplastics more beneficial for the environment compared to PE, in terms of rate of decomposition and by-products?

This review will use 4 research studies from research databases such as Google scholar, NCBI, SCOPUS etc. that have been undertaken to determine the most positive biodegradation of polylactic acid versus polyethylene. The results of these studies will be compiled to investigate how polylactic acids are more beneficial to the environment compared to polyethylene.

Background:

Bio plastics are majorly categorised as per the source and thus differentiated into 3 classes. It involves bio plastics generated which are majorly extracted from biomass, involving the extracted starch like Polylactic Acid whereas another category of plastics involves generating the plastics from vegetable oils as well as the last category of Polyhydroxyalkanoates.

This involves using starch as the major raw material because of its large-scale availability as well as its economic competitiveness with oil. Thus, starch which is a natural polymer involves granules containing the macromolecular structures stacked into various layers as well as characterizing them in relevance to composition as well as quantity and the source from which it is obtained. The formation of bioplastic involves starch which initiates with the extraction of sugars majorly dextrose whereas in some cases, glucose, as well as sucrose, is also obtained from vegetable starch. This is subsequently followed by degradation by the microorganisms and turning into smaller molecules of lactic acid. Then dimerization occurs as well as lactide is purified followed by polymerization to form Polylactic acid and it doesn't require any chemical solvents. Thus, it is biodegradable along with recyclable polyester which is prepared from renewable feedstock. The raw material is lactic acid which is formed by the fermentation of sucrose or glucose and then refining to high purity.

Bioplastics are considered beneficial as they utilize a very low amount of fossil fuel resources as well as a very low carbon footprint in adherence with the faster rates of decomposition. Also, the bioplastics are known to be less toxic as well as do not have bisphenol A which is a hormone disrupter present in conventional plastics.

Poly (lactic acid is majorly a synthetic polymer which is biodegradable in nature. This polymer is usually investigated globally in relevance to its biomedical as well as consumer applications due to the enhanced requirements of renewable materials which are largely sustainable alternatives as compared to petrochemical-derived products.

Also, PLA is known to be the product resulting from the polymerization of either lactic acid or lactide. This is the most commonly utilized as well as produced carboxylic acid in nature via the carbohydrates undergoing. The PLA applicability is largely limited due to heat distortion temperature along with toughness. The biodegradation of PLA is based on the mechanism of two steps. This involves the heat as well as moisture present in the compost attacking chains of the PLA followed by splitting of the polymers. This is followed by the production of small Mw polymers which in turn results in the formation of lactic acid. But a problem with Polyethylene type plastics is that they have poor biodegradation and are highly resistant to biodegradation. The reasons behind this are attributed to largely high hydrophobicity as well as the long carbon chains. As per research evidence, it is investigated that usually, it takes ten decades for the mineralization of PE-based polymers (Teixeira et al., 2021).

Also, the biodegradation of PE-based plastics sometimes majorly involves a surface erosion process. Furthermore, the UV irradiation involving the photo-oxidation as well as thermal along with chemical oxidation of polyethylene before exposure to a biotic environment increases the rate of biodegradation. Also, Polylactic acid (PLA) is biodegradable hydrolysable aliphatic semicrystalline polyester produced through the direct condensation reaction of its monomer, lactic acid, as the oligomer, and followed by ring-opening polymerization of the cyclic lactide dimer.

The biodegradation of PLA occurs by Amycolaptosis s. fungi. The aim of the study is to compare the degradation as well as by-products of PLA as well as PE-based plastics and their impact on the environment (Deshmukh et al., 2017).

Analysis and interpretation:

Biodegradable vs petroleum-based plastics: A review of results:

The ability of biodegradation of plastics is based on whether they are obtained from natural products or petroleum-based products. Two papers by Jiménez and Atiwesh provided findings for the biodegradation of plastics and all factors were not considered by the 2 reviews.

As per the study by Atiwesha et al (2021) Bioplastics in contrast to traditional petroleum-based plastics, the utilization of PLA, as well as thermoplastic starch, helps in a significant decrease in carbon dioxide emission. The PLA helps in approximately 50–70 percent reduction in carbon footprint. [Also, the PLA is helpful in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and useful in reaching zero LUC emissions.

Another study by Jiménez (2019) is based on a synthesis of PLA via condensation polymerization of the lactic acid. It also focuses on cleaner energy via condensation of ring opening polymerization of lactide and has large levels of tensile strength and low elongation.

The biodegradation of PLA depends on the environment due to its exposure to the outside environment. Furthermore, the biodegradation of PLA does not cause environmental pollution. Also, the biodegradation of PLA involves heterogeneous as well as homogeneous degradation also known as surface and intermolecular degradation of polymers. Also, it has distinct chemical existence such as scission of the main chains along with scission of the side chains as well as scission of the intersectional chain. Also, the biodegradation of PLA occurs majorly via the scission of the ester bond. Thus, it results in the breaking down of the long polymeric chains into smaller oligomers. Thus, the ester bonds relevant to the PLA fragment break into carboxylic acid as well as alcohol via chemical hydrolysis because of the hydrion. Then the smaller subunits pass out into cell walls of microorganisms which are then utilized as substrates in the biochemical processes and further degradation occurs via the microbial enzyme. As per literature evidence, the PLA contains amorphous chains which are highly susceptible to hydrolysis (Luo et al., 2019). Also, there is a high level of degradation of fully amorphous PLA at a faster rate as compared to semicrystalline PLA in hydrolytic degradation.

Conclusion and evaluation
reviewing the literature sources
the two studies chosen helped in ensuring the consistency of results in relevance to better biodegradation of PLA as compared to PE plastics. Also, the procedures provided could be easily replicated. But the review papers limit the applicability due to a lack of procedure. These papers helped in adding value to the overall discussion and these papers were published in academic and research journals and thus highly reliable. Overall results
the two studies helped to determine if the PLA bioplastic has better biodegradation as compared to PE-based plastics. The major aspects rely on terms of susceptibility to biodegradation and the lactic acid chains being released which are easily degradable via the action of microbes. Also, the application of relevant findings of the literature helps to prove the claim. The findings have been applied and the claim is true and PLA-based plastic is better than PE plastic in terms of being environment friendly.

Conclusion and evaluation:

It is recommended to make suggestions in the investigation and improvements required for taking into account various challenges to the evidence. There is a need for extensive research to make a comparative analysis between PLA as well as PE in terms of by-products and improved scientific language. There is a need for improved procedures for reviewing the by-products involved in decomposition.
Further investigations:

The investigation is required for analysing some other variables for the environment-friendly nature of plastics and apart from decomposition other processes need to be studied. The environmental impact of plastics has also to be studied via improved impact in human bodies of bioplastics as bioplastics are largely accumulating in human bodies. There is a need to analyze both long terms as well as short terms impact of biodegradation and its cost-effectiveness.

REFERENCES

Dhanraj, N.D., Hatha, A.A. and Jisha, M.S., 2022. Biodegradation of petroleum based and bio-based plastics: Approaches to increase the rate of biodegradation. Archives of Microbiology, 204(5), pp.1-11.

Jiménez, L., Mena, M.J., Prendiz, J., Salas, L. and Vega-Baudrit, J., 2019. Polylactic acid (PLA) as a bioplastic and its possible applications in the food industry. J Food Sci Nutr, 5(2), pp.2-6.

Atiwesh, G., Mikhael, A., Parrish, C.C., Banoub, J. and Le, T.A.T., 2021. Environmental impact of bioplastic use: A review. Heliyon, 7(9), p.e07918.

Luo, Y., Lin, Z. and Guo, G., 2019. Biodegradation assessment of poly (lactic acid) filled with functionalized titania nanoparticles (PLA/TiO2) under compost conditions. Nanoscale research letters, 14(1), pp.1-10.

Teixeira, S., Eblagon, K.M., Miranda, F., R. Pereira, M.F. and Figueiredo, J.L., 2021. Towards controlled degradation of poly (lactic) acid in technical applications. C, 7(2), p.42.

Deshmukh, K., Ahamed, M.B., Deshmukh, R.R., Pasha, S.K., Bhagat, P.R. and Chidambaram, K., 2017. Biopolymer composites with high dielectric performance: interface engineering. In Biopolymer composites in electronics (pp. 27-128). Elsevier.

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