Revolutionizing the Polymer Industry - Shaping Sustainable Biopolymer-based Solutions

Article by Dr Ruchi Agrawal, Professor Himadri B. Bohidar, and Prabhpreet Kaur is autobiographical in nature. Authors share their insights on the escalating concerns of petrochemical plastics. They also highlight, it is high time, mankind shifts its focus of research and development objectives towards the synthesis of biodegradable polymers and their derivatives to make this industry environmentally benign.

- Dr Ruchi Agrawal, Professor Himadri B. Bohidar, & Prabhpreet Kaur

With the current increasing rate in petrochemical-based plastic production, by the year 2050, there will be about 12 billion tonnes of plastic in landfills and in the environment (PSF n.d.). It must be realized that the solution to the plastic pollution problem may never become a reality if we keep focusing only on downstream processing (collection, separation, recycling of used plastics), while at the same time investing in the petrochemical industry. For a long time now, our efforts, including government initiatives have largely focused on the management and recycling of plastic waste. Time has come for our research and development objectives to shift focus towards the synthesis of biodegradable polymers and their derivatives.

In the current scenario, the synthetic polymers are being widely used as the preferred precursors of plastics because of their low cost and high strength.

However, the inertness of these synthetic precursors makes them highly resistant to biological and chemical degradation, meaning that these tend to exist in nature for an indefinitely long time, ultimately partaking responsibility for water and soil pollution. These plastic/polymers do not decompose, instead break down into tiny fragments forming micro- and nano-plastics that can enter into the food chain.

In this worrisome situation, scientists all over the world have reported the presence of microplastics in human blood, breast milk, and placenta which can interfere with the normal cellular activities in both pregnant and lactating mothers, and consequently the infants (Muniasamy, Shruti, Pérez-Guevara, and Roy 2023).

Not to mention, the poor animals that choke to death after accidental consumption of plastics (Image 1).

Even more dangerous is the leakage of toxic-additive compounds or plastic softeners such as phthalates that can cause developmental, endocrine, and reproductive health problems.