3. Results and discussion 3.1. Efect of process variables Soil microbial flora constituted a mixed microbial population(including bacteria, fungi and protozoa) which may act syner- gistically during degradation of tapioca starch based films and reproduce under naturally occurring conditions. The experiments were carried out up to 30 days and the results are presented in Table 1. However beyond 30 days, samples could not be easily recovered due to their macroscopic deterioration.