The global plastics market share of bioplastics is about 2% and the annual growth rate is 3-4%, similar to the growth rate of conventional plastics. Generally, the global production of bioplastics is expected to increase from 2.1 million tonnes in 2018 to 2.6 million tonnes in 2023. Compared to the annual production capacity of conventional plastics of 335 million tonnes, the share of bioplastics appears only a drop in the ocean. The reasons for a relatively small increase in bioplastics production capacity are extremly low oil prices, a still slow start of political support, and limited market access.
Biodegradable polymers also have disadvantages
The first important thing: The monomer building blocks that make up natural polymers usually contain more oxygen atoms than the fossil hydrocarbons from petroleum.
This makes the material stiffer and cannot directly replace conventional plastics such as polyethylen and polyproyplen. Therfore, sustainable polymers like PLA are sometimes blended with conventional polymers to achieve acceptable material properties. However, this leads to other disadvantages. These plastics are less transparent.
Some researchers focus directlly on polymers that occur naturally. Lined up glucose molecules result in cellulose, fox example, which in turn can combine to form strong fibers- plant are structures in this way.
The cellulose chains form tiny crystals that can be chemically extracted from the cellulose and further processed into insulating foam, used reinforce composite materials or even used in medicine as a scaffold for tissue repair. However, such applications are still dreams of the future. Until now, these materials have only used to make paper stiffer an to thicken liquids.
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