**4. Applications of biodegradable polymers**

i. Food Industry

The two main areas having applications in this sector are food packaging and edible films. The aim of food packaging is to enhance shelf life, ensure food safety, minimize food losses, improves the organoleptic properties of food like appearance, odor, and flavor. To replace the synthetic polymers, starch based biodegradable polymers could be utilized as an effective alternative with better properties. Although, the constituents involved in synthetic starch based packaging materials aren't fully inert. There is a possibility of migration of toxic substances into the food product which can affect humans. Due to this problem, alternative packaging materials are being studied [29, 32]. For example, investigations have led to the formation of starch or clay based nanocomposites that have shown low movement of polymeric substances, enhanced mechanical properties that can be utilized as a food packaging material. The characteristics of biodegradable films are colorless, flavorless, odorless, non-poisonous, and ecological. In low humidity conditions, these films exhibit very little penetrability to oxygen and help in increasing shelf life and quality of food product without compromising consumer acceptability. The compressed films or trays can be easily degraded by microbes as they readily dissolve in water medium. Therefore, starch based biodegradable polymers are of potential interest for food industry applications.

ii. Agriculture

In this sector, the key applications of biocomposites are greenhouse covering, mulch film, and fertilizer controlled release materials. Agricultural films are mainly consumed. Traditional films are disposed of by landfill, recycling or incineration. These processes take a lot of time, are not cost effective and pollute the environment. The important factor in developing agriculture productions is the effective usage efficiency of fertilizers. But, the fertilizers tend to escape to the environment because of surface runoff, leaching and vaporization thereby causing economic disadvantages and environmental issues. Starch based biodegradable polymers come into the picture to overcome these limitations [2]. The biocomposite can be utilized as a fertilizer controlled release matrix to release the fertilizer in the desired way. The films can be disposed of later after plowed into the soil. Due to their use, toxic residue formation does not take place after degradation. More studies are being explored involving starch based films in this sector. For instance, bio-nanocomposites are created by merging starch based film with additives like titanium dioxide, silicate or MMT to enhance mechanical characteristics.
