Almost 25 years after their hopeful debut, bioplastics contribute only about 1% of the global plastics market share, mainly for food packaging. But that may soon change. The Biden administration announced an initiative in 2023 to “spur a circular economy” with the goal of replacing 90% of petrochemical-sourced plastics with bio-based materials over the next 20 years. With looming European mandates also aimed at addressing the plastic pollution crisis, analysts expect the bioplastics market to grow to 5 million metric tons by 2025. At first glance this sounds like a good thing, but is it? Motivated by the aggressive marketing of bioplastics as a solution to the plastic crisis, scientists are now peering inside these material innovations, and those doing the research don’t like what they see. “Most people don’t know about toxins in plastics, period. And even people that do work with plastics don’t know about toxins in bioplastics,” says Bethanie Almroth, a professor of ecotoxicology and environmental science at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, who has studied bioplastics. These plant-based materials can be just as toxic as petroleum-based ones, she says. That’s not necessarily due to the plant world sourcing of base materials, but because of the chemical processes needed to make bioplastics and the additives required to achieve the many desirable qualities demanded of them (durability, flexibility, color, etc.). A plastics factory worker pours plastic pellets into a tote. A 2020 study looked at bio-based plastic pellets and found they contained a similar number of chemicals as…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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