**4. Comparison of bioplastics with petroleum-based plastics**

The plastics industry began in the early 1900s when the first synthetic plastic was created by Leo Hendrik Baekeland in the United States [76]. Since the industry began, annual global plastic production has grown extensively from some 1.5 million metric tons in 1950 to 359 billion metric tons in 2018. The cumulative production of plastic has already exceeded eight billion metric tons worldwide, with further increase is expected in the future. The increase in plastic waste has become a global environmental issue. Although recycling has become more widely practiced in recently, many plastic materials produced over the last 70 years has ended up in landfills, and often ends up in water bodies, contributing to the environmental pollution [77].

Although plastics production uses less than 5% of all gasoline, its renewability is usually a source of concern. Separating various forms of petroleum-based recyclable plastics from other solid wastes is a time-consuming and labor-intensive process, hence, only a limited proportion of plastics are recycled. The failure of petroleum-based plastics to biodegrade is also a point of contention among environmentalists [78].

**Table 12** show a collection of LCA literature data [79, 80]; each LCA characterizes and compares the environmental impact of various bioplastics (thermoplastic starch (TPS), polylactic acid (PLA), and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) and traditional plastics (high and low density polyethylene, Nylon 6, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) and polycaprolactone) with an approach cradle to grave.

Overall, the statistics in **Table 12** demonstrates how the manufacture and utilization of bioplastics is more energy efficient and reduces greenhouse gas pollution as compared to traditional plastics. In contrast, bioplastics has a significant environmental effect due to soil acidification and eutrophication, owing to the use of fertilizers and chemicals in the processing of organic raw materials used in bioplastics manufacturing. However, the inclusion of non-biodegradable

*Nano-Cellulosic Fibers from Agricultural Wastes DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.98637*


#### **Table 12.**

*Energy requirement and global warming data for each type of plastic.*

copolymers in bioplastics necessitates a substantial rise in energy consumption and CO2 emissions as compared to bioplastics. Indeed, non-biodegradable copolymers are added to mechanical biopolymers to boost their efficiency, lowering the biodegradable capacity of the resulting material. It is vital to note that the above LCA findings were obtained using incineration with energy recovery as the final provision: this option is not especially beneficial to bioplastics due to their low calorific value.

The study of LCA data consistently has confirmed that bioplastics have certain environmental impact indices that are lower than other conventional plastics, although other indices favor the latter; hence, the need to develop an overall environmental impact index that incorporates and accurately weighs all indices [81].

*Cellulose Science and Derivatives*
