Disintegration under composting conditions of PLA/PHB/TB films

IGLESIAS MONTES, MAGDALENA L.; LUZI, FRANCESCA; PUGLIA, DEBORA; MANFREDI, LILIANA B.; CYRAS, VIVIANA P.

Buenos Aires

Simposio; SAP 2019 - XIII SIMPOSIO ARGENTINO DE POLÍMEROS; 2019

UBA-ITPN

During the last two decades, the industry of biodegradable polymers has had an exponential growth as a consequence of the increasing ecological concern towards a reduction in the environmental impact produced by plastics. Food packaging and its indiscriminate use is one of the main causes of environmental impact. Scientists have especially focused their efforts on the development of new biodegradable materials derived from biomass as an alternative to replace and reduce the use of petroleum-based plastics. In this sense, bio-polyesters such as poly (lactic acid) (PLA) and poly (3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB), both biodegradable and biocompatible thermoplastics produced from renewable resources, are becoming more popular as bio-polymers useful for the production of ecofriendly food packaging. However, each of these has some shortcomings, which restrict its applications. Blending techniques are a promising and industrially appealing approach, which can improve the properties of the starting polymers. In the present work, disintegration under composting conditions of plasticized and non-plasticized PLA, PHB and PLA/PHB (60/40) blends have been tested, in order to evaluate the post-use behavior of these potential food packaging systems. With this purpose, visual observation and morphological and thermal analysis were performed for each sample at different times of incubation.