A Details study on: Developing Biodegradable Plastics from Potato starch with enhanced physico-mechanical properties

Abstract Plastic is very much indestructible even after a long period of time in the environment as it is mainly a derivative of strongly bonded long-chain petrochemical-based materials. Nowadays, plastic wastes have become an environmental hazard. However, a Starch based bio plastic can be a solution of this problem. Starch is a natural biopolymer having mainly two types of polymer glucose. In this research work, a biodegradable plastic is developed form potato starch. The advantages of starch-based plastic are its abundance and low cost. However, most of the starch-based materials exhibit very poor physico-mechanical properties like low tensile-tear strength, high stiffness, elongation at break and poor moisture stability. Improvement of starch-based bio-plastic properties is being attempted through starch modification, reinforcements (both organic and inorganic), processing conditions, and use of compatibilizers to develop substitutes for conventional plastics. The physic-mechanical properties of the biodegradable plastic have been ameliorated through some well designed processes. Several tests have been conducted on the biodegradable plastic as well as on the regular plastic in order to make a comparative study between them. Test results showed a very promising start for the biodegradable plastic for becoming the alternative of regular non-biodegradable plastics.