RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Analysis of biological treatment technologies, their present infrastructures and suitability for biodegradable food packaging - A review
A1 Vargas Estrada, Laura Gabriela
A1 García Depraect, Octavio
A1 Zimmer, Johannes
A1 Muñoz Torre, Raúl
K1 Anaerobic digestion
K1 Biodegradability
K1 Bioplastics
K1 Circular economy
K1 Composting
K1 Plastic pollution
K1 3308 Ingeniería y Tecnología del Medio Ambiente
AB Recently, there has been an increased demand for biodegradable plastics in the food packaging industry, especially for highly food soiled packaging items containing food/beverage solids that will not be recycled using a non-biological process. However, the increased usage of those materials have also raised concerns and confusion, as a major part of these biodegradable plastics are not effectively separated nor recycled. The lack of acceptance in recycling facilities, related to confusion with their conventional polymers counterparts, as well as short retention times of recycling facilities, often incompatible with the degradation kinetics of biodegradable plastics, stand as the major drawbacks for bioplastics treatment. Additionally, the presence of incompletely biodegraded bioplastics during biological treatments or in the final products i.e. compost or digestate, could lead to process failure or limit the commercialization of the compost. This work critically reviews the fundamentals of the biological treatments, anaerobic digestion and composting processes, and discusses the current strategies to improve their performance. In addition, this work summarizes the state-of-the-art knowledge and the impact of bioplastics on full-scale treatment plants. Finally, an overview of the current installed treatment capacity is given to show the areas of opportunity that can be improved and exploited to achieve a better waste management of biodegradable plastics.
PB Elsevier
SN 0301-4797
YR 2025
FD 2025
LK https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/76463
UL https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/76463
LA eng
NO Journal of Environmental Management, 2025, vol. 376, p. 124395
NO Producción Científica
DS UVaDOC
RD 21-jul-2025