Training Report

Biodegradation of Plastic materials as per EN 13432

The biodegradable polymers could be an alternative to the conventional plastic materials. These
polymers being biodegradable can be disposed in safe and eco friendly, and helps in
mineralization of the plastic materials which is hazardous to human health and environment.Due
to plastics are used in a wide range of applications, great amounts of plastic wastes are generated
each year all over the world. Reusing of plastic wastes is preferable to recycling as it uses less
energy and fewer resources. Mechanical recycling is problematic because of the wide variation
in properties and chemical composition among the different types of plastics. Because of this
variability, plastics must be sorted either by hand or by automated devices prior to recycling.
Other management options as incineration, pyrolysis, hydrogenation, gasification and thermal
cracking are more tolerant to impurities than mechanical recycling, although they are capital
intensive and require very large quantities of used plastic to be economically viable. On the other
hand, the disposal of plastics in landfills also has a significant environmental impact because
most plastics are non-degradable.
Polyethylene being a stable polymer consisting of long chains of ethylene linkage 1000 and
above cannot be easily degraded with microorganisms. The potential of biodegradable polymers
obtained from certain functional monomers and /or blended with additives like starch, photo
initiators, enzymes are claimed to be biodegradable. A plastic that undergoes degradation by
biological processes during composting to yield CO2, water, inorganic compounds and biomass
at a rate consistent with other known compostable materials and leave no visible, distinguishable
or toxic residue.
The main objective of the plastic biodegradation is mineralization of plastic material carbon test
by aerobic degradation which is estimated during the study by measurement of CO
2
generation
during the aerobic biodegradation process carried out under controlled conditions by treating
with appropriate inoculums as specified in standard EN 13432. Aerobic composting/
disintegration referred as aerobic biodegradation of plastic materials is well operated municipal
or industrial waste treatment facility for reducing and recycling plastic materials by a biological
process. Ecotoxicity study of the plastic material as per EN13432, OECD 208, disintegrated
compost is designed to study the potential effects of compost on seedling emergence & growth to
establish the plastic material residues left over in the soil.