Environmental concerns on water-soluble and biodegradable plastics and their applications - A review.

Autor: Nilsson F; Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden; FSCN Research Centre, Mid Sweden University, 85170 Sundsvall, Sweden. Electronic address: fritjofn@kth.se., Elf P; Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden., Capezza A; Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden., Wei X; Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden., Tsegaye B; Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden., Polisetti V; Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden., Svagan AJ; Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden., Hedenqvist M; Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2024 Dec 17; Vol. 958, pp. 177926. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Dec 17.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.177926
Abstrakt: Water-soluble polymers are materials rapidly growing in volume and in number of materials and applications. Examples include synthetic plastics such as polyacrylamide, polyacrylic acid, polyethylene glycol, polyethylene oxide and polyvinyl alcohol, with applications ranging from cosmetics and paints to water purification, pharmaceutics and food packaging. Despite their abundance, their environmental concerns (e.g., bioaccumulation, toxicity, and persistence) are still not sufficiently assessed, especially since water soluble plastics are often not biodegradable, due to their chemical structure. This review aims to overview the most important water-soluble and biodegradable polymers, their applications, and their environmental impact. Degradation products from water-insoluble polymers designed for biodegradation can also be water soluble. Most water-soluble plastics are not immediately harmful for humans and the environment, but the degradation products are sometimes more hazardous, e.g. for polyacrylamide. An increased use of water-soluble plastics could also introduce unanticipated environmental hazards. Therefore, excessive use of water-soluble plastics in applications where they can enter the environment should be discouraged. Often the plastics can be omitted or replaced by natural polymers with lower risks. It is recommended to include non-biodegradable water-soluble plastics in regulations for microplastics, to make risk assessments for different water-soluble plastics and to develop labels for flushable materials.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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