Plastic items degrade, some more slowly than others, depending on the kind of plastics, the
additives used and of course the conditions where the degrading takes place. In order to
improve quality of the plastic products, avoid degradation and thus prolong the life, special
additives are used (Appendix C), for example in products that are exposed to the sun.
During the recent years, other materials and additives are used too, for the opposite reason,
e.g. in order to start defragmenting the plastics as basis for further degradation. We might
call it a sort of medication of plastics. In this chapter the key issue is to answer to which
extent biodegradable and Oxo-degradable plastics can generate microplastics. Secondly,
whether biobased or fossil based plastics make a difference.
There are some confusion about definitions on bioplastics vs. biodegradable plastics etc., it is
important to underline the differences238:
Bioplastics encompasses a whole family of materials, which differ from conventional
plastics insofar as they are biobased, biodegradable or both.
The term biodegradable refers to a chemical process during which microorganisms
that are available in the environment convert materials into natural substances such
as water, carbon dioxide and biomass, here artificial additives are not needed
The following table on biobased and biodegradable plastics illustrate the differences further,
also with some examples on common plastic types.
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