Sustainable utilization of fruit and vegetable waste bioresources for bioplastics production

Gong, L., Passari, A. K., Yin, C., Kumar Thakur, V., Newbold, J., Clark, W., Jiang, Y., Kumar, S. and Gupta, V. K. (2023) Sustainable utilization of fruit and vegetable waste bioresources for bioplastics production. Critical Reviews in Biotechnology, (doi: 10.1080/07388551.2022.2157241) (PMID:36642423) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

Nowadays, rapidly increasing production, use and disposable of plastic products has become one of the utmost environmental issues. Our current circumstances in which the food supply chain is demonstrated as containing plastic particles and other plastic-based impurities, represents a significant health risk to humans, animals, and environmental alike. According to this point of view, biodegradable plastic material aims to produce a more sustainable and greener world with a lower ecological impact. Bioplastics are being investigated as an environmentally friendly candidate to address this problem and hence global bioplastic production has seen significant growth and expansion in recent years. This article focuses on a few critical issues that must be addressed for bioplastic production to become commercially viable. Although the reduction of fruit and vegetable waste biomass has an apparent value in terms of environmental benefits and sustainability, commercial success at industrial scale has remained flat. This is due to various factors, including biomass feedstocks, pretreatment technologies, enzymatic hydrolysis, and scale-up issues in the industry, all of which contribute to high capital and operating costs. This review paper summarizes the global overview of bioplastics derived from fruit and vegetable waste biomass. Furthermore, economic and technical challenges associated with industrialization and diverse applications of bioplastics in biomedical, agricultural, and food-packaging fields due to their excellent biocompatibility properties are reviewed.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: L.G. also acknowledges the funding support received fromthe National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No.31772033], Natural Science Foundation for DistinguishedYoung Scholars of Guangdong province [Grant No.2021B1515020024], Youth Innovation Promotion Association,Chinese Academy of Sciences [Grant No. 2018380], CASPresident’s International Fellowship Initiative [Grant No.2022VCA0001].
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Kumar, Professor Shanmugam

Creator Roles

Kumar, S.: Writing – review and editing

• Authors: Gong, L., Passari, A. K., Yin, C., Kumar Thakur, V., Newbold, J., Clark, W., Jiang, Y., Kumar, S., and Gupta, V. K.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy
• Journal Name: Critical Reviews in Biotechnology
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• ISSN: 0738-8551
• ISSN (Online): 1549-7801
• Published Online: 15 January 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright: © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor and Francis Group
• First Published: First published in Critical Reviews in Biotechnology 2023
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy