Many industrial products made from fossil fuels cause the problems of global warming, depletion of
fossil fuel resources and decrease of the land by landfill. In this report, the amounts of CO2 emissions as the
environmental load and the specific energy consumptions as the depletion of fossil fuel resources of biodegradable
plastics and conventional plastic as food trays are compared using life cycle assessment methodology. The amount
of CO2 emission of PHB (poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-4-hydroxybutyrate)) tray was the smallest among those of
trays of other plastics. The specific energy consumption of SPCL (starch/polycaprolactone) was the smallest
among those of trays of other plastics. It clearly reveals that the utilization of the biodegradable plastics is an
effective way of alternatives of the conventional plastics.
SAKAMOTO Yuki
. Life Cycle Assessment of Biodegradable Plastics[J]. Journal of Shanghai Jiaotong University(Science), 2012
, 17(3)
: 327
-329
.
DOI: 10.1007/s12204-012-1279-8
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