Synthetic Plastics and the Environment: Can Agro-waste Be Used as a Viable Packaging Material?

• Published in: Journal of packaging technology and research Vol. 7; no. 2; pp. 63 - 73
• Main Author: Okpashi, Victor Eshu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore Springer Nature Singapore 01.07.2023
• Subjects: Ceramics; Composites; Engineering; Food Science; Glass; Industrial and Production Engineering; Natural Materials; Review Paper; Biopackaging; Food safety; Microplastics; Agro-waste; Bioplastics; Food-handling
• ISSN: 2520-1034; 2520-1042
• DOI: 10.1007/s41783-023-00151-0

Over the last 60 years, global plastic output has expanded at an exponential rate. Plastic entered the oceans in an estimated 12.7 million tons, with roughly 40% of that ending up in the waste stream. It's estimated that over 5.25 trillion bits of a plastic garbage can be found on land, water, oceans, and air as a result of the rise in single-use consumer plastics. Plastic pollution is a well-known threat to flora, biodiversity, and wildlife, and its possible influence on humans is a hot topic in medical research. Cleaning up our environment is currently not practicable, and cleaning the inland canals after they are polluted with plastic is time consuming, expensive, and must be repeated thousands of times due to the enormity of the problem. The impossibilities of managing and controlling plastic trash have been extensively studied. Producing single-use bioplastics from agro-waste substrates is the only practical answer for reducing plastic production and use while improving waste management to prevent this material from entering our environment at the source. This is a powerful advocacy that should be backed up by cutting-edge technology. If over reliance on petroleum-based polymers is reduced, they will be less harmful to the environment. Several agro-waste substrates, as well as their experimental methodologies for archiving the necessary bioplastics, have been captured and clarified in this research. The effects of petroleum-based polymers on human health and the environment have been discussed. It is hoped that the knowledge gained here will be of tremendous use and will serve as a solid foundation for policymakers to defend the global population's health and the environment.