ABSTRACT
At present, petrochemical-based plastics occupy a leading place in many industries, but the emission of CO2 and green-house gases during the processing of these plastics leads to global warming. Moreover, the nonbiodegradability of these plastics creates issues in terms of waste disposal. For example, in the US, 400,000 tons of hard garbage is generated as waste, and plastics take 30 percent of its volume (Kumar et al., 2012). The inability to dispose of plastics has become a large threat to the stability of the global ecosystem. Hence, environmental concerns over plastic materials have raised interest in the use of biodegradable alternatives in many industries including the packaging industry (Rhim et al., 2009, Fukushima et al., 2009b). Renewable resource-based biodegradable plastics can be derived in many ways and chemically synthesized biopolymers (poly (glycolic) acid, poly (lactic acid) (PLA), poly (vinyl alcohol)) are among them. PLA has gained enormous attention as a replacement for conventional petrochemical-based packaging plastics due to its unique properties (Rhim et al., 2006).
