ABSTRACT
There is an increased recognition that biodegradable plastics can serve an important role in the design of an intelligent, integrated, solid waste disposal scheme [1-3]. The concept is elegant, achievable in principle, and environmentally appeal ing. Biodegradable disposable-plastic articles can be designed such that they will be entirely converted by microbial activity in a biologically active environment to bio gas (C 0 2 and CH4/C 0 2 under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, respectively), biomass, and biological by-products. This process, which is also called mineraliza tion, should be considered as a biologically mediated recycling of plastic articles.
