Plastic as environmental pollution

Biodegradable polymers, such as crop-based hydrodegradable, compostable plastics and oxo-biodegradable plastic have been developed. Industries are quickly adopting these new materials and their use is increasing exponentially, with 2.11 million tonnes manufactured in 2018 alone.  To date there is very limited knowledge of the degradation pathway, from a chemical perspective, and of the impact on the environment from such biodegradable materials and their breakdown products. It is not known whether these polymers will degrade completely under natural conditions, how quickly this degradation is likely to occur, what form the carbon and other additives take on after degradation, how available this carbon is to microbial communities or the repercussions on biogeochemical cycles. There is increasing concern that biodegradable polymers may have a similar negative impact on the environment as traditional plastics, for example, through the formation of microparticles due to incomplete degradation and/or the generation of toxic metabolic by-products.

The BioPEP project aims to evaluate the environmental impact of biodegradable plastics via an interdisciplinary approach, where chemists, geographers, microbiologists and ecologists work together to identify new solutions.