Asmita Anil Hiralkar
Shri Gajanan Maharaj Jr. College of Science, India
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Polym Sci
More than eighteen trillion pounds of plastic have been produced to date and eighteen billion pounds of plastic flows into the ocean every year. The major environment problem these days is increasing nondegradable waste on earth. The major environment concerns behind extensive synthetic plastics uses are its biodegradability and production of toxins while it’s degradation. Therefore, there is an absolute of need for ecofriendly plastics. Many polymers in nature can meet these demands, research in this regard with a target to replace nondegradable with natural biodegradable recyclable plastic. Biopolymers and bioplastics have several economic and environmental advantages. These could also proved an asset to waste processing. Biopolymers and bioplastics generally do not produce a net increase in carbon dioxide gas when they broke down. They are cheaper alternatives and do not generate as much toxic run off. Valuable raw materials can be reclaimed and recycled into other products. Conventional plastics are often seen as environmentally unfriendly. Getting rid of plastics is extremely difficult. Burning them can give off toxic chemicals. While collecting and recycling them responsibly is also difficult. Environmentally friendly plastics fall into three types as bioplastics, biodegradable plastics and eco/recycled plastics. The theory behind bioplastics is simple if we could make plastic from kinder chemicals to start with, they’d break down more quickly and easily when we got rid of them. Biopolymers are polymers produced by living organism. They are polymeric biomolecules. Biopolymers are compostable. There is a less chance of environmental pollution from this compound. These compounds reduce the dependency on non-renewable fossil fuels.
Asmita Anil Hiralkar has completed her M.Sc. in Physical Chemistry by Sant Gadge Baba University. She has worked as Assistant professor of Chemistry at Shri Gajanan Maharaj Jr. College of Science, Shegaon (India).
E-mail: asmita.hiralkar@gmail.com