RT Journal Article
T1 Is a compostable plastic biodegradable in the sea? A rapid standard protocol to test mineralization in marine conditions
A1 Lopez Ibañez, Sara
A1 Beiras Garcia Sabell, Ricardo
K1 2510.01 Oceanografía Biológica
K1 3308.06 Regeneración del Agua
K1 3308.11 Control de la Contaminación del Agua
AB Due to environmental persistence, lack of a proper land-based waste management, and global circulation, marine ecosystems are especially threatened by plastics. The search for alternatives to conventional oil-based polymers gave rise to novel materials commercialized under different “green” labels based on compostability. However, current international standards are not effective in predicting actual biodegradability of plastic objects in natural scenarios, and degradation of these novel bioplastics in marine conditions is unwarranted. We present a simple and rapid standard protocol based on their biological oxygen demand, intended to support policy-makers and plastic industry in the search for truly marine-biodegradable plastics. Improvements include: development of an environmentally relevant nutrient formulation following Redfield ratio (106C:16 N:1P); use of a natural inoculum representative of marine habitats (sediment pore water); standardization of the test material by grinding to particles below 250 μm to shorten the incubation period, and selection of a truly biodegradable biopolymer (PHB), used as positive control. This protocol was successfully applied to show that commercial compostable plastics are not biodegradable in marine environments.
PB The Science of The Total Environment
SN 00489697
YR 2022
FD 2022-07
LK http://hdl.handle.net/11093/3515
UL http://hdl.handle.net/11093/3515
LA eng
NO The Science of The Total Environment, 831, 154860 (2022)
NO Financiado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade de Vigo/CISUG
NO Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
NO Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. PCI2020-112110
DS Investigo
RD 28-mar-2025