Plastic pollution has become a global environmental crisis, threatening ecosystems, biodiversity, and human health. The extensive use of petroleum-based plastics, particularly single-use plastics, has resulted in the accumulation of persistent plastic waste in terrestrial and aquatic environments, contributing significantly to microplastic pollution and ecological degradation. Bioplastics have gained considerable attention as sustainable alternatives because they are derived wholly or partially from renewable resources and may exhibit biodegradable properties depending on their composition. Feedstocks such as corn starch, sugarcane, cellulose, algae, and microbial biomass offer environmentally friendly alternatives to fossil-based raw materials while supporting the transition toward a circular bioeconomy. This review provides a comprehensive overview of bioplastics, including their classification, raw materials, production techniques, industrial applications, environmental and economic benefits, current limitations, and recent technological advancements, highlighting their role in reducing plastic pollution and advancing sustainable materials science. With growing global interest in eco-friendly alternatives, bioplastics are expected to play a crucial role in reducing plastic waste, promoting green manufacturing, and shaping sustainable consumer behaviour. Continued research, technological innovation, supportive government policies, and improvements in waste management infrastructure will be essential to enhance the performance, affordability, and large-scale adoption of bioplastics in the future.
The production and utilization of petroleum‐based plastics cause severe environmental degradation and climate alteration. These conventional plastics release greenhouse gases and hazardous chemicals during production, and their resistance to degradation—persisting undamaged for over 60 years—fuels critical marine pollution. To mitigate these issues, research is shifting toward biobased plastics as sustainable, biocompatible, and biodegradable alternatives. Derived from renewable biomass or microbes, these materials include starches, cellulose, casein, and diverse polysaccharides sourced from red (
Rhodophyta
), green (
Chlorophyta
), and brown (
Phaeophyta
) algae. Aligning with the principles of a circular bioeconomy, this approach maximizes resource efficiency and minimizes waste. Furthermore, innovative materials like Bio‐PET, polybutylene succinate (PBS), polylactic acid (PLA), and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are increasingly deployed to replace traditional plastics. Beyond offering excellent preservation against oxidation and microbial decomposition in food packaging, these bioplastics show immense promise in medicine, nutraceuticals, and pharmaceuticals. This review article evaluates the diverse natural sources of bioplastics, analyzes their mechanical, thermal, and physical properties, and highlights their most promising future applications.
Plastics have become indispensable materials in modern society; however, their continuous production and consumption have led to significant environmental challenges associated with plastic waste accumulation and the occurrence of microplastics. This review provides an overview of global plastic production, plastic waste generation, and waste management practices, with particular emphasis on circular economy strategies aimed at improving resource efficiency and reducing plastic pollution. The current situation in North Macedonia is also discussed, highlighting the challenges and opportunities related to plastic waste management and recycling. Special attention is given to microplastics as emerging environmental contaminants. Current knowledge regarding their sources, environmental distribution, and potential ecological and human health impacts is summarized. Recent studies indicate that atmospheric transport represents an important pathway for the dispersal and deposition of microplastic particles, contributing to their occurrence even in remote regions. The review further examines the application of moss biomonitoring as a cost effective and efficient approach for assessing atmospheric microplastic deposition. Preliminary observations from a European monitoring initiative, including samples from North Macedonia, confirm the widespread presence of atmospheric microplastics and reveal spatial variations in their concentrations and polymer composition. These findings highlight the importance of harmonized monitoring methodologies and the integration of environmental monitoring with circular economy and waste management strategies to mitigate microplastic pollution.
Aleksandra Ivanoska Dacikj, Katerina Bačeva Andonovska· Macedonian Journal of Ecolog...· 0 citations
Persistent petroleum‐derived plastics have presented environmental problems, and this has amplified the world's interest in biodegradable and renewable alternatives. Bioplastic nanoparticles, as a novel class of materials with sustainability and improved performance, are among them. This review presents the main categories of bioplastics derived from natural, microbial, and chemically modified sources, highlighting their structural features and physicochemical properties. Special attention is paid to the role of nanotechnology in overcoming the drawbacks generally associated with traditional bioplastics, such as low mechanical strength, inadequate thermal stability, and barrier performance. Different fabrication strategies such as top‐down, bottom‐up, and green synthesis approaches and their impact on size, morphology, and functionality of nanoparticles are discussed. Moreover, the review also includes surface engineering and functionalization techniques that provide better stability, targeting, and response to external stimuli. The study discusses the degradability of bioplastics in composting, soil, and aqueous environment along with the processes involved in making bioplastics useful for lab and industrial scale manufacture. Moreover, the review also considers the fate of residual bioplastics under environmental conditions in which bioplastics may not completely degrade, pointing out the possible risks from ecotoxicology and drawbacks of biodegradable claims under natural environmental conditions. Specific focus is placed on issues related to the translation of technology into clinical and industrial setting. In addition, the increasing applications of bioplastic nanoparticles in drug delivery, gene therapy, vaccine systems, food packaging, agriculture, and environmental remediation are reviewed critically. While significant progress has been achieved, scalability, economic feasibility, safety assessment, and regulatory compliance still pose challenges to large‐scale implementation. Emerging developments in synthetic biology, artificial intelligence‐assisted formulation design, and evolving regulatory frameworks are discussed as key factors expected to influence the future advancement and commercialization of nanoengineered bioplastic systems. This review summarizes the paradigm shifting impact of nanoengineered bioplastics on sustainable material science and discusses future prospects for their safe and effective implementation in a variety of industrial sectors.
Ayushi Jain, Charan Singh, Dinesh Kumar et al.· Polymers for Advanced Techno...· 0 citations
The global plastic pollution crisis demands a fundamental re-evaluation of materials systems beyond incremental improvements to fossil fuel-based polymers. Bioplastics, polymers derived from renewable biological feedstocks, biodegradable under defined conditions, or both, offer a chemically diverse and rapidly evolving platform for transitioning toward circular materials economies in which the value of carbon, energy, and material is retained across multiple use cycles. This review provides a comprehensive and critically organized account of the bioplastics field, spanning three generations of feedstock development from food crops through lignocellulosic residues to algae and waste streams; primary production pathways including microbial fermentation, ring-opening polymerization, and biosynthesis; forming processes from extrusion and injection molding to additive manufacturing; and the mechanical, thermal, and barrier properties that determine application fitness. Particular emphasis is placed on life cycle assessment, which reveals that bioplastics’ climate benefits are conditional on feedstock choice, land-use management, energy source at manufacturing, and end-of-life pathway, and that burden-shifting from greenhouse gas emissions to land use, water consumption, and eutrophication is a systematic risk requiring integrated LCA evaluation rather than single-metric optimization. The review further examines end-of-life recycling, composting, and biodegradation pathways; market applications across packaging, agriculture, automotive, biomedical, and electronics sectors; and the growing role of artificial intelligence and machine learning in accelerating materials design, process optimization, and lifecycle data management. Critical barriers to scale, such as cost premiums of 20–75% over conventional plastics, inadequate composting infrastructure, recycling stream contamination, regulatory fragmentation, and consumer labeling confusion, are systematically analyzed alongside mitigation strategies. The review concludes with a forward-looking discussion of emerging feedstocks, smart and functional bioplastics, and the policy and infrastructure investments required to translate the environmental promise of bio-based polymers into realized circular economy impact.
