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Plastic packaging is widely used, especially in the food industry. Synthetic packaging materials originating from petroleum have disadvantages such as environmental pollution and toxic substance accumulation because they cannot be decomposed in nature for a long time.
Petroleum-based synthetic plastics such as polystyrene, polypropylene, polyethylene, polymethylmethacrylate and polyvinyl chloride are widely used in every field in our daily life and more than 250 million tons are produced every year.
The sensitivity of the consumers about the harmful effects of the packaging materials they use on the nature has started to increase especially in recent years. This sensitivity primarily manifested itself in plastic-based bags in shopping. In many countries, the use of plastic bags in shopping malls is decreasing due to both legal regulations and the effect of non-governmental organizations, and the interest in biodegradable polymers in general is increasing.
Biodegradable Plastic Packaging Materials produced from edible biomass sources such as vegetable oil, corn starch, pea starch or microbiota cause lower greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the definition made by the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM), polymers that can be dissolved by the effect of bacteria, fungi, algae, yeast and other microorganisms found in nature are called biodegradable polymers.
Biodegradable polymers are naturally produced by living organisms such as animals, plants, bacteria, cellulose, starch, leather, chitosan, bacterial polyesters as well as synthetically produced but biodegradable poly (lactic acid) (PLA), poly (ecaprolactone) (PCL) includes materials such as poly (glycolic acid) (PGA). There are basically three main conditions for biodegradation to occur. These are conditions organism, substrate and environmental impact. Biodegradation does not occur when any of these are not achieved.
The production and use of plastic packaging materials that can decompose in the soil (biodegradable) are in a necessity in the USA and European Union countries.
With the use of biodegradable packaging materials, environmental awareness increases, the use of petroleum-derived packaging materials decreases and becomes widespread with the developing technology. Biodegradable packaging materials are not yet able to compete adequately with plastics. The most important reason for this situation is high research and development costs and low production capacity. In the future, with the increase in crude oil prices, renewable raw material sources will gain more importance and the production of environmentally friendly plastics will replace today's plastics.
