GROUP 3 & 4: GREEN by Shamzi Mohamed

Instruction

shamzey — 2018-11-18 10:58:01 UTC

Each Individual in Group 3 & 4 should contribute unique postings from one another to the e-bulletin board based on related color code. Provide Name & Matrics no. in posting

BIOFERTILIZERS

2018-11-23 16:58:01 UTC

WANI BINTI FIKRI
197850

What are bio-fertilizers?

Biofertilizer is a substance that contains living microorganisms which, when applied to seeds, plant surfaces or soils, colonizes the rhizosphere or the interior of the plant and promotes growth by increasing the supply or availability of primary nutrients to the host plant.

Nitrogen and phosphorus are yield limiting factors. So the proper availability of these nutrients is required to obtain the optimum crop yield. Enormous amount of synthetic fertilizers are utilized to reload soil nitrogen and phosphorus, which cause harmful effects on environment. As a result, emerging importance of bio-fertilizers will decrease the requirement of synthetic fertilizers and in result it will be helpful in the restoration of environment (Whitelaw, 2000). Aside from being eco-friendly, they are also more economical due to their low market prices comparing synthetic fertilizers, which is helpful in improving soil structure and the restoration of environment for leveraging agriculture.

Bio-fertilizers contain plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). PGPR normally influence the process of growing of plants and are mostly advantageous and their positive impacts have been greatly put to practical use in numerous ways, using as bio-fertilizers, checking diseases in plants as well as having probiotic properties (Kumar et al., 1999)

Normally PGPR enhance the availability of unavailable nutrients and also increase the nutrient

absorption capacity of crop plants . Nitrogen fixing and phosphorus solubilizing bacteria have

synergistic effects on the growth and development of crops. Plant growth regulating rhizobacteria

have normally been used in non-leguminous crops such as paddy, maize, wheat. Inoculation PGPR with Bacillus species has shown positive yield response in paddy, sorghum and barley.

Besides that, bio-fertilizers are also able check harmful soil pathogens and also enhance the availability of essential nutrients for crop plants. Joint application of nitrogen fixing and phosphorus solubilizing bacteria promotes the yield in sorghum and barley in contrast to only treatment with nitrogen fixing or phosphorus solubilizing bacteria.

This invention regarding bio-inocculants produce growth promoting substances which surge nitrogen and phosphorous availability in plants ultimately increase the yield of crop plants. Use of bio-fertilizers can minimize or utterly eliminate the use of synthetic fertilizers, decreasing environmental hazards, improve soil structure and promote leveraging agriculture. Therefore, no wonder the option of bio-fertilizer is getting very popular as a choice for the replacement of synthetic fertilizer.Research exertions are required for exploring new and better agronomic effectiveness of bio-fertilizers in cereals, orchards,flowers and vegetables

With that, thank you.

REFERENCES

1. Rodriguez, C.E.A., A.G. Gonzales, J.R. Lopez, C.A. Di

Ciacco, B.J.C. Pacheco and J.L. Parada. 1996. Response

of field grown wheat to inoculation with Azospirillum

brasilense and Bacillus polymyxa in the semiarid region

of Argentina. Soil Fertility, 59: 800.

2. https://www.toppr.com/guides/biology/microbes-in-human-welfare/biofertilizers/

TISSUE CULTURE (PLANTS)

2018-11-23 23:59:44 UTC

NURIN NAZIRAH BINTI ZULKIFLEE
198175

What is plant tissue culture ?
Tissue culture is a biological method applied in plant research in which fragments of plants are transferred to an artificial environment for such purposes as the growing of new plants, which in some cases undergo genetic alterations. Here, the plant of interest is taken through the tissue culture process and grown in a controlled environment.

Benefits of plant tissue culture;
It gives us true to type plants, where it produces progenies which are extract the copy of their parents' genetically. Phenotypic variations may be produced by environmental variabilities which may or may not be heritable. It helps us in rescue the young developing embryo in inter-specific breeding programes. Embryo rescue is a process in which young developing embryo is taken out and grown on a artificial culture medium for their survival. When two plants of same species are crossed, their progeny are starved because of absence of food material like a young child starved because of mother's are unable to feed them. Thus, the young embryo is taken out and grown on artificial medium. It produces soma clonal variation. Soma clonal variation is the source of artificial variability. Variation are of two types, one is genetic variation and another one is somatic variation. Genetic variation is because of a change in genetic material, DNA or RNA. This variation is transferable from one generation to another generation, on the other hand, Soma clonal variation is because of some changes in the genetic material from the somatic cells. This variation may or may not be transferable but this is also one of the source of creating artificial variability which is ultimately used in creating some useful product.

Major steps of Tissue Culture (plants);

Initiation Phase (Stage 1)

The initiation phase is the first phase of tissue culture. Here, the tissue of interest is obtained and introduced and sterilized in order to prevent any microorganism from negatively affecting the process. It is during this stage that the tissue is initiated in to culture.

Multiplication Phase (Stage 2)

The multiplication phase is the second step of tissue culture where the in vitro plant material is re- divided and then introduced in to the medium. Here, the medium is composed of appropriate components for growth including regulators and nutrients. These are responsible for the proliferation of the tissue and the production of multiple shoots.

*This step is often repeated several times in order to obtain the desired number of plants

Root formation (Stage 3)

It is at this phase that roots are formed. Here, hormones are required in order to induce rooting, and consequently complete plantlets.

Biological Insights :
Tissue culture has enabled numerous discoveries in the biological sciences. Work with tissue cultures has helped to identify infections, enzyme deficiencies, and chromosomal abnormalities, to classify tumours, and to formulate and test drugs and vaccines. It is also allow scientists to discover certain viruses that grow on tissue culture thus, this techniques has been used to produce vaccines regarding these viruses. Other than that, tissue culture techniques have been used to culture many kinds of hybrid cells that contain chromosomes from different species in the same cell, that allow the functions of individual chromosomes to be separately defined. By using tissue culture techniques, variety of methods and efforts have been developed for detecting environmental substances that may cause gene damage by developing new strains of cereal crops with improved nutritional properties.

References :

BT CORN (GM CROPS)

2018-11-24 10:28:52 UTC

ANIS SHAZWINA BINTI SAHAK

196763

What is Bt ?

Bacillus thuringiensis is a species of bacteria that produces crystal-like proteins that are toxic to certain insects.

What is Bt Corn?
Bt-corn is a type of genetically modified organism, termed GMO. A GMO is a plant or animal that has been genetically modified through the addition of a small amount of genetic material from other organisms through molecular techniques.

History

Japanese biologist Shigetane Ishiwatar isolated the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) in 1901.
In 1915, Ernest Berliner reported the existence of a crystal within Bt.
Farmers started to use Bt as a pesticide in 1920, but only killed flour moth.
Bt as a pesticide had limitations such as it is washed away by rain and degraded by UV light.
In 1958 Bt was used commercially in United States and was registered as a pesticide to the EPA in 1961.
In 1977 thirteen Bt strains had been described and were toxic to certain species of lepidopteran larvae.
In the 1980's use of Bt increased when insects became increasingly resistant to the synthetic insecticides.
Scientists and environmentalists became aware that the chemicals were harming the environment.
The first genetically engineered plant, corn, was registered with the EPA in 1995.

How Bt works?
When a susceptible insect ingests plant material containing the Bt toxin, pores in a section of the midgut of the insect are formed. This then leads to paralysis of the gut and within two to three days, death of the insect.

Advantages

Bt does not kill beneficial insects such as honeybees.
Bt is essentially nontoxic to people, pets and wildlife.
§ Bt does not has negative impact on the environment.
§ Bt provides more than 99% control of first generation European corn borer larvae.

References
1) Bommier, A., & Villeneuve, B. (2010). V Alue of R Isk To, 00(00), 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6975.2010.01390.x

2) Koch, M. S., Ward, J. M., Levine, S. L., Baum, J. A., Vicini, J. L., & Hammond, B. G. (2015). The food and environmental safety of Bt crops. Frontiers in Plant Science, 06(April), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2015.00283

How it is made?

Genetic Modified Organism Hairul Azimuddin B. Che Azmi 198676

2018-11-26 14:13:14 UTC

GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organism, and it can describe an organism created through genetic modification. Many products in industries like medicine, consumer goods, and agriculture are made with genetic modification. Common examples include insulin and laundry detergent. When it comes to plants, genetic modification refers to seeds. GM seeds grow in the ground like any other seed, only they have certain desirable traits. These seeds grow into plants that might better handle water-limited conditions or better withstand challenges like harmful insects, weeds, or disease.

The first stage in making a GM plant requires transfer of DNA into a plant cell. One of the methods used to transfer DNA is to coat the surface of small metal particles with the relevant DNA fragment and bombard the particles into the plant cells. Another method is to use a bacterium or virus. There are many viruses and bacteria that transfer their DNA into a host cell as a normal part of their life cycle. For GM plants, the bacterium most frequently used is called Agrobacterium tumefaciens. The gene of interest is transferred into the bacterium and the bacterial cells then transfer the new DNA to the genome of the plant cells. The plant cells that have successfully taken up the DNA are then grown to create a new plant.

Farmer grow the crops from GM seed to help them to consider the challenges they face every day such as crop loss from weeds, insects and disease, and the effects of climate change such as drought. There are also issue regarding GM plant which are possible that if insect-resistant plants cause increased death in one particular pest, it may decrease competition and invite minor pests to become a major problem. In addition, it could cause the pest population to shift to another plant population that was once unthreatened. These effects can branch out much further. Next, the potential risks accompanied by disease resistant plants deal mostly with viral resistance. It is possible that viral resistance can lead to the formation of new viruses and therefore new diseases. It has been reported that naturally occurring viruses can recombine with viral fragments that are introduced to create transgenic plants, forming new viruses. Additionally, there can be many variations of this newly formed virus. Check the link below for more issues regarding GMO in agriculture. Thank you

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3791249/

"Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG) Potent Extract of Green Tea"

2018-12-01 15:02:11 UTC

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INTAN NUR SABRINA BINTI JAMALUDDIN
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198664
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LECTURER : DR MOHD SHAMZI BIN MOHAMED
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What do you know about GREEN TEA?

Archeological evidence suggests that tea leaves steeped in boiling water were consumed as many as 5,000 years ago. Botanical evidence indicates that India and China were among the first countries to cultivate tea. Although the English are known for their love of tea, Americans invented the tea bag and began the practice of drinking iced tea in the early 1900s. Today, hundreds of millions of people drink tea around the world, and studies are now suggesting that one variety of tea in particular—green tea (Camellia sinensis)—has many health benefits.

How GREEN TEA is processed from the leaves?

Green tea is produced by lightly steaming the fresh cut leaf, and the production of black tea involves allowing the leaves to oxidize.
During oxidation, enzymes present in the tea convert polyphenols, which possess outstanding therapeutic action, to a different compound with different pharmacological effects.
With green tea, oxidation doesn’t take place because the steaming process inactivates these enzymes.
Green tea is very high in polyphenols with potent antioxidant and anti-cancer properties. Oolong tea is partially oxidized.

GREEN TEA drink VS GREEN TEA extract

Drinking a cup of green tea tastes great, but unless the eight catechins from the green tea plant are getting into your blood stream and staying there long enough to offer a therapeutic dose, it's really just a tasty cup of green tea and nothing more.
Scientists has already proven in studies that its green tea extract is highly bioavailable, which in means that all eight catechins of the green tea extract are getting into the blood stream and staying there for 24 hours.

_{#catechins is a flavan-3-ol, a type of natural phenol and antioxidant. It is a plant secondary metabolite.}

How GREEN TEA extract is produced?

Green tea leaves were infused with 75 °C distilled water in the ratio of 1:7 (w/w).
After 20 min of infusion, the tea extract was quickly separated from the tea leaves by filtration and the green tea extract (GTE) was freeze-dried.
The composition was analyzed by C18 reverse phase column chromatography (elution with 22% THF at the flow of 1 ml/min). The GTE was composed of caffeine (5.48%), gallic acid (0.22%), GC (1.95%), EGC (10.22%), catechin (0.35%), EGCG (9.11%), EC (2.51%), and GCG (0.88%), as determined by HPLC.
GTE solution was prepared by adding water to the powder and filtering it through a 0.2 μm syringe filter.

The Advantages of Epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) Potent Extract of GREEN TEA ! ! !

EGCG (Epigallocatechin Gallate)

_{It is one of the most powerful compounds in green tea. It has been studied to treat various diseases and may be one of the main reasons green tea has such powerful medicinal    properties}

1) Weight Loss

Green Tea Extract has always been one of the most powerful ingredients for weight loss. It is mainly influenced by the antioxidant (EGCG, epigallocatechin-3-gallate) in green tea.
It can prevent carbohydrates from converting into glucose (sugar), and as we know, sugar turns into fat in the body, that's one of the main reasons people store fats.

2) Anti-Aging

Green tea (EGCG) can also prevent wrinkles by reducing inflammation and free radicals on the skin to give you a better glow.

3) Acne

The antioxidant (EGCG in Green Tea) can greatly reduce the inflammation and prevent the formation of acne long-term.EGCG also has anti-bacterial effects to actually treat acne internally.

4) Cardiovascular, immune system, and diabetes

Animal studies suggest that green tea may help prevent the development of type 1 diabetes and slow the progression once it has developed.
People with type 1 diabetes produce little or no insulin, a hormone that ushers glucose (sugar) into cells.
EGCG may help regulate glucose in the body because it has a slight inhibition on carbohydrate digesting enzymes.

5) Digestion

Everyone has a digestive enzyme in our saliva called Alpha-Amylase. It catalyzes starch conversion into sugar once it’s consumed in the body. For instance, when we eat French fries (high starchy food), our saliva converts the fries into sugar which eventually turns into fat in our body.
EGCG inhibits this enzyme to catalyzes starch conversion which really helps the body digest without using too much energy and prevents insulin spikes for those that are in risk of diabetes

7) Cancer

Green tea extract is an excellent source of powerful antioxidants, so it makes sense that it could reduce your risk of cancer, which it appears to do:

Breast cancer: A meta-analysis of observational studies found that women who drank the most green tea had a 20-30% lower risk of developing breast cancer, the most common cancer in women.

Prostate cancer: One study found that men drinking green tea had a 48% lower risk of developing prostate cancer, which is the most common cancer in men.

Colorectal cancer: An analysis of 29 studies showed that those drinking green tea were up to 42% less likely to develop colorectal cancer.

“LET’S CHANGE OUR DIET TO STAY HEALTHY”

References

1. https://belivestore.com/
2.https://drhoffman.com/article/egcg-potent-extract-of-green-tea-2/
3.https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/top-10-evidence-based-health-benefits-of-green-tea#section4

Biopesticides

2018-12-02 05:23:00 UTC

Muhammad Azmirul Bin Yusuf
195871

What is biopesticide?

Biopesticide is a formulation made from naturally occurring materials that is used to control pests by applying non-toxic mechanisms and eco-friendly approach. Biopesticides may be acquired from animals (e.g. nematodes), plants (Chrysanthemum, Neem) and microorganisms (e.g. Bacillus thuringiensis, Trichoderma, nucleopolyhedrosis virus). Biopesticides are generally less harmful to the user and the non-target organisms, which make them desirable and sustainable aids for disease management.

Major Classes of Biopesticides

1. Microbial pesticides

Microbial pesticides utilize microscopic living organisms (e.g. viruses, bacteria, fungi or protozoa) or toxin synthesised by these organisms as their active component. Commonly used microbial pesticides are subspecies and strains of Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt. Each strain of this bacteria creates different combination of proteins that can kill certain or a few related species of insect larvae. When consumed by pest larvae, Bt releases toxins which damage the mid gut of the pest that eventually killing it. Bt is highly specific, eco-friendly, with little or no effect on human, wildlife, pollinators and other beneficial insects and also used in organic farming.

2. Plant pesticides

Plants that produce substances or chemicals that contain detrimental effect on pest organisms. One of the example is neem. Neem does not kill the insects on the crop directly. It acts as an anti-feedant, repellent and egg-laying deterrent, protecting the crop from damage. Within a few days, the insects will starve and die. Neem also prevent the pest insect’s eggs from hatching. Other example is Crysanthemum. The active pyrethrins from its flowers can act as insect repellent. Pyrethrins attack the nervous systems of all insects and inhibit female mosquitoes from biting. It is applied as a suspension in water or oil, or in powder form.

3. Biochemical pesticides

Biochemical pesticides are naturally occurring substances that is used to control pests by non-toxic mechanisms. By contrast, the conventional pesticides are made from synthetic materials that can directly kill or inactivate the pest. Biochemical pesticides include substances that interfere with mating, such as insect sex pheromones, as well as various scented plant extracts that attract insect pests to traps.

Advantages of Using Biopesticides

Inherently less harmful than conventional pesticides and eco-friendly.
Designed to affect only the target pest and closely related organisms, one specific target or a few target organisms in some cases.
Effective in very small quantities and often decompose quickly, resulting in lower exposures and largely avoiding the pollution problems caused by conventional pesticides.
When used as a component of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs, biopesticides can greatly reduce the use of conventional pesticides, while crop yields remain high.

Production of Biopesticides

The materials are cleaned and purified from foreign substances or dirt and then extracted by using different methods like distillation or solvent extraction to obtain essential oils or extracts. The acquired extracts are then tested for activity in vitro against different pests using various methods such as agar well diffusion, disc diffusion and agar dilution. The most active component are then evaluated for efficacy in controlling pests and diseases under field conditions. The active constituents of the selected extracts are then identified for optimum formulation. To ensure that the most efficacious combination of the active compounds, carrier materials, emulsifiers, surfactants and other components used in pesticide development are optimized, intensive laboratory and field trials conditions are carried out. The efficacy report from the laboratory and field trials is used to request for registration of the product from the pest control products body. Before the natural products are commercialized, they are usually tested in the laboratory and under field conditions for efficacy against the target pests.

References
1.DOI: 10.4236/jbm.2018.66002.
2.https://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/what-are-biopesticides.

Hanan Anuar (199209)

hanand4h2s — 2018-12-03 00:12:17 UTC

Effective fermentation bacteria in EM mudball help to decompose sludge

In polluted river,slute are accumulate because of oxygen deficiency,so there is a little oxygen that dissolve in water .The sludge produced harmful bacteria such as gas methane ,ammonia and hydrogen sulfide and decompose organic matter without oxygen .
EM mudball added to water in this condition and become embedded at surface sludge start decompose sludge
As fermentation decomposition progress amino acid and saccharide produce.
Phytoplankton increase when the presence of sunlight can increase the oxygen in water ,helping oxidative decomposition bacteria which require oxygen more active
decomposition of sludge is accelerated. Around EM Mudballs, zooplankton will increase, transforming sludge into detritus, organic sediment made of organic matter and microbes, and the sludge will no longer be harmful.
EM Technology is purported to support sustainable practices in farming and to improve and support human health and hygiene, compost and waste management.
These content EMinclude:
* Lactic acid bacteria: Lactobacillus casei
* Photosynthetic bacteria: Rhodopseudomonas palustris
* Yeast: Saccharomyces cerevisiae
* Others: beneficial microorganisms that exist
Temperature, pH, salinity, oxygen density, redox potential, concentrations of preferred nutrients, concentrations of co-substrates and presence of toxicants affect the survivability and persistence of any single species or combination of species of microorganisms introduced into an environment.

https://www.emrojapan.com/water-treatment/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_microorganism and http://www.scribd.com/doc/33020658/Should-EM-Mudballs-Be-Used-for-Treating-Rivers-and-Seafro)

~ BIOREMEDIATION ~

2018-12-07 05:23:22 UTC

NURUL AMIRA AINA BINTI YUSLI (198805)

Bioremediation is a process used to treat contaminated media, including water, soil and subsurface material, by altering environmental conditions to stimulate growth of microorganisms and degrade the target pollutants.

At sites filled with waste organic material, bacteria, fungi, protists, and other microorganisms keep on breaking down organic matter to decompose the waste. If such environment is filled with oil spill, some organisms would die while some would survive. Bioremediation works by providing these organisms with different materials like fertilizer, oxygen and other conditions to survive. This would help to break the organic pollutant at a faster rate. In other words, bioremediation can help to clean up oil spill in the sea or river.

TYPES OF BIOREMEDIATION.
1. Phytoremediation – use of plants to remove contaminants. The plants are able to draw the contaminants into their structures and hold on to them, effectively removing them from soil or water.

2. Bioventing – blowing air through soil to increase oxygen rates in the waste. This is an effective way to neutralize certain oxygen sensitive metals or chemicals.

3. Bioleaching – removing metals from soil using living organisms. Certain types of organisms are draw to heavy metals and other contaminants and absorb them. One new approach was discovered when fish bones were found to attract and hold heavy metals such as lead and cadmium.

4. Landfarming – turning contaminated soil for aeration and sifting to remove contaminants, or deliberately depleting a soil of nitrogen to remove nitrogen based organisms.

5. Bioreactor – the use of specially designed containers to hold the waste while bioremediation occurs

6. Composting – containing waste so a natural decay and remediation process occurs.

7. Bioaugmentation – adding microbes and organisms to strengthen the same in waste to allow them to take over and decontaminate the area
8. Rhizofiltration – the use of plants to remove metals in water.

9. Biostimulation – the use of microbes designed to remove contamination applied in a medium to the waste.

IMPORTANTS OF BIOREMEDIATION
1. It uses no chemicals.
-This process is included the microbes such as bacteria to remediate the substance that have been contaminated.
2. This process required not much equipment.
3. The contaminate water or soil will undergo the teratment on the site.
4. The microbe will neutralize the contaminad substance.
-they will neutralized or removed and then produces a waste product itself that is more easily disposed of.

DISADVANTAGES OF BIOREMEDIATION
1. If the process is not controlled it is possible the organic contaminants may not be broken down fully resulting in toxic by-products that could be more mobile than the initial contamination.

2. The process is sensitive to the level of toxicity and environmental conditions in the ground i.e. the conditions must be conducive to microbial activity e.g. need to consider temperature, pH etc.
8. Performance evaluations are difficult because there is not a defined level of a "clean" site and therefore performance criteria regulations are uncertain.

REFERENCES:
1.https://www.geoengineer.org/education/web-based-class-projects/geoenvironmental-remediation-technologies/bioremediation?showall=&start=7.

Bioplastic

2018-12-07 05:30:41 UTC

Nurul Sahira Binti Ngaini(199189)
What are bioplastics?

The term “bioplastic” represents a plastic substance that is based (wholly or in part) on organic biomass rather than petroleum. Many bioplastics are biodegradable, which is - in theory - one of their greatest advantages However, it is easy to confuse some of the common terms in use; although they sound similar, many terms regarding bioplastics are not interchangeable. Here are three distinct descriptors:

What does bio-based plastic mean? This is a very broad term that basically means a substance was derived from plant-based material, whether wholly or in part. Starch and cellulose are two of the most common renewable feedstocks used to create bioplastics; these typically come from corn and sugarcane. Bio-based plastics are distinguished from much more common petroleum-based polymers (visit our Plastics page to learn more about conventional types of plastics). Although many would assume that anything “bio-based” is biodegradable, this is not the case.

What does biodegradable plastic mean? Whether a plastic is biomass- or petroleum-based is a different question than whether it will biodegrade (a process by which microbes break down material if conditions are suitable). Technically, all materials are biodegradable, but for practical purposes, only those that degrade within a relatively short period of time (weeks to months, usually) are considered biodegradable. As mentioned in the previous bullet, not all bio-based plastics are biodegradable; bioplastics that don’t degrade within a few months or years are sometimes called “durable.” Conversely, there are petroleum-based plastics that will degrade faster under optimal conditions than will their organic biomass counterparts.

What does compostable plastic mean? According to the American Society for Testing and Materials, compostable plastics are those which are "capable of undergoing biological decomposition in a compost site as part of an available program, such that the plastic is not visually distinguishable and breaks down to carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds, and biomass, at a rate consistent with known compostable materials (e.g. cellulose), and leaves no toxic residue." The requirement for no toxic residue is one of the distinguishing characteristics between compostable and biodegradable. Also of note, some plastics can be composted in home gardens, whereas others require commercial composting (where temperatures get much higher and the composting process happens faster).

Corn and sugarcane are two of the most popular feedstocks currently used to create bioplastics, but there are many options to choose from. For instance, Turkish inventor Elif Bilgin won a 2013 Science in Action award for creating a bioplastic from banana peels when she was sixteen years old. Other renewable resources that have been used include mango skins and waste from potato cutting, such as that used in developing new packaging for Snickers candy bars in Europe.

What applications make use of bioplastics?

Did you know that bioplastics have been around for at least 100 years? Corn oil and soybean oil were both used to manufacture auto parts for the Ford Model T. In more recent years, bioplastics have been used in a variety of consumer products, such as food containers, grocery bags, biodegradable utensils, and food packaging. These are called commodity plastics. Bioplastics can also be used for engineering grade applications, such as electrical and electronic housings and enclosures.

In short, bioplastics have made their way into nearly every industry: automotive, electronics, food and beverage packaging, agricultural, textiles, health care.

What are the benefits of bioplastics?

Generally speaking, the greatest advantages of a burgeoning bioplastic industry are a smaller energy footprint and a less polluted ecosystem. The problem of overflowing landfills and floating islands of trash - in theory - will be addressed through increased use of bioplastics. As mentioned above, however, not all bioplastics actually degrade in a meaningful time span; it is entirely realistic that some bio-based plastics will remain intact for decades, especially if they are not discarded properly.

Bioplastics are also gaining popularity because they don’t contain bisphenol A (BPA)...you may recall seeing plenty of marketing for BPA-free products, especially in the food storage and baby feeding/accessory industries. For instance, the European Union has banned the use of BPA in baby bottles, although it is not clear yet what the potential impacts are of BPA in consumer goods. For the time being, most of the concern seems to be centered on BPA’s alleged ability to disrupt hormonal activity. Bioplastics provide a potential alternative to this issue (although there is no guarantee that BPA won’t be added to bioplastics in the future).

Depending on the particular material, the manufacturing process for some bioplastics results in lower greenhouse gases than petroleum-based plastics. For example, polylactic acid (PLA) is one bioplastic that can be produced from manufacturing equipment that already exists, thus making it more cost efficient to create. However, this does not necessarily account for the entire lifecycle of a plastic; in many cases, the methods used to grow renewable feedstock have a large footprint, and what happens after a bioplastic product is used can vary wildly. Let’s discuss.

What are the disadvantages of bioplastics?

It can be very difficult for consumers to discern which bioplastics they’re using are biodegradable or compostable, and which conventional plastics they’re using are biodegradable, compostable, or otherwise recyclable. For this reason, many bioplastics do not get discarded properly...and some municipalities don’t even have the facilities to sort, compost, or recycle bioplastics, so everything ends up in a landfill anyway. For example, a cup made from polylactic acid (PLA) looks and feels like regular plastic, so a consumer may throw it into the recycle bin, when really it could be composted. But here’s what may happen instead, according to EarthIsland:

“At the recycling facility, a PLA cup can be mechanically separated from PET products using an infrared sensor. But recyclers don’t usually take the trouble to do such sorting. It’s an expensive process and no one is going to pay them enough for that PLA to justify the cost. Within the PET stream, PLA tends to muck things up. If enough PLA (or other non-PET material) ends up in a bale of PET, a plastics reclaimer is going to turn it away and the bale will likely end up in a landfill. So suddenly those earth-friendly packaging materials have cut short the possibility that the PET inside that bale will find another useful life before ending up in a landfill.”

Aside from impacting the potential reusability of conventional plastics, many bioplastics must be discarded properly in order to actually biodegrade or compost. For instance, if a biodegradable fork is packed into an airtight landfill, it may not degrade at all. Conversely, anaerobic degradation (decomposition in the absence of oxygen) could happen when moisture is present, meaning biodegradable bioplastics create an air pollution problem by creating methane.

An interesting disadvantage of using bioplastics for food storage was revealed to us during a trip to Costa Rica earlier this year. A chocolatier looking to decrease her environmental impact began using bioplastic bags to store her bars of base chocolate. Unfortunately, insects in the jungle were attracted to the bags, and began to eat through them, making them an unviable option for food storage in that particular application.

Polylactic acid (PLA): One of the most common bioplastics

Polylactic Acid is biodegradable and has characteristics similar to polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), or polystyrene (PS). It can be produced from already existing manufacturing equipment (those designed and originally used for petrochemical industry plastics). This makes it relatively cost efficient to produce. Accordingly, PLA has the second largest production volume of any bioplastic (the most common typically cited as thermoplastic starch, which is commonly used in food storage bags and food utensils).

There are a vast array of applications for polylactic acid. Some of the most common uses include plastic films, bottles, and biodegradable medical devices (e.g. screws, pins, rods, and plates that are expected to biodegrade within 6-12 months).. PLA constricts under heat and is thereby suitable for use as a shrink wrap material. Additionally, the ease with which polylactic acid melts allows for some interesting applications in 3D printing. On the other hand, its low glass transition temperature makes many types of PLA (for example, plastic cups) unsuitable to hold hot liquid.

Reference:
https://www.creativemechanisms.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-bioplastics