Source: Plastics Industry Association
Bioplastics – One of the global trends
According to World Economic Forum, bioplastics are listed as the top 1 emerging technology in 2019 for a circular economy. In 2014, it is captured that 311 million metric tons of plastics had been generated yet only 15% of it is being recycled. Plastics debris accumulating in the ocean will cause many kinds of problem such as wildlife will mistakenly ingested to the toxic compounds released from plastics. From Figure 1 below, Malaysia is currently one of the biggest plastic polluters, ranked 8th in the world.
Biodegradable plastics have developed into the solution that would ease the environmental issues brought by standard plastics which derived from petrochemicals, contributing to the goal of a “circular” plastic economy in which plastics derive from and are converted back to biomass. Bioplastics can be divided into three main groups which are: biobased, also known as non-biodegradable plastics. Biobased plastics are made from biobased, renewable materials like corn, sugarcane and cassava where these are also known as biomass.
For biodegradable plastics, they are often biodegraded in natural environments leaving behind biomass, carbon dioxide and water. They are made from fossil fuels (PBAT) or biomass such as PLA. Polylactic acid (PLA), is one of the most promising types of bioplastics, as it is biodegradable and compostable. Currently, bioplastics have large production capacities due to the market for bioplastics is continuously growing and diversifying. Based on the latest market data from European Bioplastics as shown in Figure 2, global bioplastics production capacity will reach at 2.43 million tonnes in 2024, in which the production for biodegradable plastics is 1.33 million tonnes and the rest are bio-based plastics.
Applications of bioplastics
Bioplastics are mostly used in engineering-grade applications and almost every industry such as automotive, electronics, food and beverage packaging, agricultural, textiles, health care and others. PLA has various applications including plastic films, bottles, and biodegradable medical devices. PLA is the most popular material for desktop 3D printers, as it has decent durability and easy to process. The other reason behind this is because PLA is derived from natural materials hence it is safe to be used as one of the materials for 3D printers.
Current challenges in bioplastics and potential biomass found in Asia countries
Most PLA bioplastics could not withstand increased temperatures. In addition, to produce PLA, a huge amount of corn is required. As the production of PLA continues and demand rises, the price of corn for global markets could be affected as well.
Alternatively, instead of using the food sources as feedstock to produce bioplastics, Asia has potential biomass from several agriculture wastes, which can be used to produce bioplastics. Asia countries endowed with abundant biomass resources like Malaysia, has rich sources of various biomass-based products such as EFB, PKS, OPT and PKC from oil palm processing plants, sawdust from wood processing plants, paddy straw from milled rice processing plants can all be used as the feedstock to produce a variety of green products including biorefining chemicals such as bio-resins, bio-fuel and bioplastics as an end product. With the rich natural resources available, Malaysia could tap into the circular economy of biomass.
Furthermore, due to the high value of using agriculture crop waste, sustainable practices in the biomass industry should be promoted. For example, biomass hub can be built more in Malaysia or any other Asia countries which have the biomass availability for downstream utilization like bio-resins production, bio-chemical production as well as bioplastics production. The rising demand for bio-based products amongst end-users is the key factor that helps in boosting the bio-chemical market as shown in Figure 3. In Malaysia, bio-chemicals represent the largest potential with a market value of RM 7-9 billion. By producing 1.6 million tonnes of bio-chemicals, 5.5 million tonnes of biomass are required, which shows the importance of biomass.
Sustainability of bioplastics
The greatest advantages of burgeoning the bioplastic industry are due to the energy footprint released can be reduced and lesser pollution to the ecosystem. The main reason where bioplastics are popular nowadays because they do not contain BPA. BPA is an industrial chemical that has been widely used in plastics production but also brought harmful effects on the environment.
For example, by using PLA, it is more sustainable than petro-based plastics as they are derived from biomass but not petroleum or natural gas. Therefore, supplanting petro-plastics with PLA could drastically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. PLA is also recyclable and compostable. In a controlled environment, PLA will naturally break down and return to the earth.
In a nutshell, while PLA has promise as an alternative to conventional plastic, we should start switching to reusable containers, from cloth bags, baskets and backpacks for grocery shopping to safe, reusable (non-plastic) bottles for beverages and stop using the single-use plastics. In Malaysia, The Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change (MESTECC), had launched the Roadmap Towards Zero Single-Use Plastics 2018-2030 that aims to abolish single-use plastic by 2030. Thus, Malaysians should collaborate with the government to achieve the same goal.
Written by Yu Ting Tan, Consultant at 27 Advisory, obtained her bachelor’s degree in the field of Chemical Engineering (Honours) at Monash University. She is interested in nanotechnology as well as consulting field and wishes to gain more experience in these areas to help people afford a better quality of life.
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