However, over the past 10 years, it seems we haven’t quite found the right formula.
Indeed, bioplastics face several challenges that few know about
Therefore, let us explore why bioplastics are not yet mainstream:
Today's Lesson: The Drawbacks Of Bioplastics
Why adoption of the green plastics is lacking
Number Of The Day
Globally, approximately 170 million tonnes of plastic are used annually for packaging. This is approximately 44% of the total plastic consumption. Replacingthis volume with bioplastics, which need biomass for their synthesis, would demand at least 61 million hectares of land - an area larger than France. It would also need more than 630 tones of different crops to produce.
61 Million
The Challenges Of Bioplastics
Why Do We Need Bioplastics After All?
If we could simply improve our recycling of traditional plastics, most of our problems would be solved, right?
A) If we should run out of oil one day, we would no longer be able to produce new plastics in large quantities.
B) Currently established recycling methods limit “reuse” to 4-10 cycles on average.
C) Chemical recycling which might provide a solution to this problem is, at this point, too energy-intensive and only applicable on a small scale.
Indeed, especially for laboratory plastics, we need high-quality polymers. When recycling polypropylene or polystyrene through mechanical recycling, their chains are shortened. The result: reduced robustness, higher leaching, and less transparency.
High density polyethylene (HDPE), low density polyethylene (LDPE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), If you want to know more here.
Although this might be acceptable for normal packaging, if your 1.5 mL tube didn’t allow you to see how much fluid was inside, you would probably not order from that company again.
Therefore, plastics made from biological sources offer the advantage of being potentially degradable through composting and reliably producable.
(PS: There are ideas of using these plastics as carbon sinks, but this is a questionable solution—it’s more of a “procrastination” tactic, although it could help for a few hundred years.)
The Numbers Behind Bioplastic Adoption
In essence, bioplastics represent only a fraction of the global plastics market. As of 2023, bioplastics accounted for just 0.5% of total plastics production worldwide.
Even though global production capacity has more than doubled since 2010, in the past 5 years we only saw a 10% rise. This means, bioplastics are not adopted faster than the use of conventional plastics grows (adoption from 0.54 % in 2013 to 0.56 % in 2022).
The Price Problem
One major factor is cost:
Polylactic acid (PLA), is more than twice as expensive than conventional plastics:
Polyethylene (PE): €1,237 per ton (Europe)
Polypropylene (PP): €1,248 per ton (Europe)
Polylactic Acid (PLA): €2,740 per ton (Europe)
Bioplastics rely on special raw materials like corn or sugarcane and require more complex production processes.
Limited production capacity and specialized equipment further inflate costs. While new methods could eventually narrow the price gap, the switch to bioplastics still demands significant upfront investment.
Beyond the Price Tag: Key Drawbacks
1. Environmental Trade-offs
While bioplastics can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, we need to be more exhaustive.
As always, take Life Cycle Analysis data with a big grain of salt. Additionally, the data from this study is from before 2010 mostly, which means data will have changed. However, the used data available in databases such as ecoinvent by the “European plastics industry” for petroleum polymers, while biopolymer data is reported by NatureWorks for PLA compiled in 2007, and from Novamont from 2004 for TPS. Data was then processed with software such as SimaPro and TRACI v2.00 (Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and Other Environmental Impacts) [38], developed by the US EPA. Polylactic acid (PLA), Polytrimethylene Terephthalate (TPS), High density polyethylene (HDPE), low density polyethylene (LDPE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS),
Producing bioplastics often involves fertilizer and monoculture intensive agriculture, and vast amounts of water. For instance, replacing Europe’s plastic packaging with bioplastics would consume landmass larger than Ireland - and nearly a fifth of the EU's annual freshwater withdrawal.
Moreover, bioplastics like PLA have limited compostability. Industrial composters find PLA challenging because it decomposes too slowly and often acidifies soil.
Furthermore, just like conventional plastics contain additives that will be toxic for the environment, causing oxidative stress or antiandrogenicity.
2. Functional Limitations
Bioplastics often fall short when it comes to durability.
For example, they have comparatively low heat resistance and high permeability. This means PLA allows more moisture and oxygen to pass through, making it less ideal for food storage or lab applications.
3. Recycling Hurdles
Unlike traditional plastics, PLA cannot be recycled in standard facilities e.g., due to requirement of pure waste stream and their lower melting point. On top, the small-scale production of PLA means it is too dispersed to make specialized recycling economically viable.
Applying The Knowledge
While we will not see bioplastics becoming the go to for lab items, we might be able to welcome them in standard packaging.
However, if you think this topic is interesting, the Horizon Europe will come with 93.5 billion Euros in funding.
Discovering chemical improvements (for the various types of polymers) and effects of plastics on microorganisms or human health will certainly be in the scope.
However, as funding bodies or the CSRD ask for footprint analysis, bioplastics can be a step in the right direction. Nevertheless, as most analyses estimate carbon footprint by purchase price, you might want to highlight where bioplastics are in use and search for more precise impact assessments (otherwise you will end up with higher footprints than actually caused).
Upcoming Lesson:
Sneaky Sustainability Tips For Your Lab
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