In 1850s, a British chemist created plastics from cellulose derived from wood.

And in the early 20th century, Henry Ford experimented using soy-based plastics for

powering automobiles. These occurrences began the sparking interest in bioplastics

especially during the oil crisis in the nineteen seventies.

Bioplastics are plastics derived from renewable resources. According to

European Bioplastics, a plastic material is defined as a bioplastic if it is either biobased,

biodegradable, or features both properties (Chen, 2014). The American Society for

Testing Materials (ASTM) defined a biobased material as an organic material in which

carbon is derived from a renewable resource via biological processes which includes all

plant and animal mass derived from carbon dioxide recently fixed via photosynthesis,

per definition of a renewable resource. Biodegradable plastics are degraded by the

action of biological organisms. The amount of bioplastics produced worldwide is less

than 200,000 tons a year, which dwarfs the more than 30 million tons of oil based

bioplastics (Reddy, 2013).

Conventional plastics, on the other hand, are plastics derived from natural gas or

petroleum. These types require more fossil fuels and produce more greenhouse gases.

Consumption continues to rise; worldwide from 50 million tonnes p.a. in 1976 to an

estimated 330 million tonnes in 2015 (Thielen, 2014)

Compared to conventional plastics, bioplastics are more environmental friendly

since it results in lesser emission of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, when burnt.

In addition to that, other advantages of employing bioplastics are that it reduces litter,

improves compatibility and the reduction in the usage of scarce crude oil.
 Cellulose-based, starch-based, polylactic-acid (PLA), poly-3-hydroxybutyrate

(PHB) are the most common types of bioplastics. Cellulose-based plastics are derived

from woodpulp and are used to make film-based products.The thermoplastic starch is

the most important and widely used type of bioplastic. PLA is a transparent plastic and

byfar the most promising type of bioplastic for the near future. This type of plastic

resembles petrochemical-based plastics such as polypropylene and polyethylene. PHB

is primarily produced by a bacteria processing glucose or starch and is very similar to

propylene, which used in a wide variety of fields.