Biodegradable plastics in agriculture

Biodegradable polymers for industrial applications Table 17.1 Ratio of increased income to cost of mulching film  

One of the most important markets for mulehing films is in the Far East, particularly mainland China and Taiwan. China uses five times the quantity of plastics in agriculture than the USA. It will be evident from the above that mulching films are used in a variety of different environments and when used to their maximum potential, they greatly increase the value of commercial crops as a result of earlier and heavier cropping (Table 17.1). This is particularly advantageous in the case of the more exotic fmits and vegetables. 

In 2001 the area of crops cultivated over mulching film in Taiwan was 31,220 hetares/annum, involving the removal of about 5,500 tonnes of plastic film annually. Table 17.2 indicates the importance of mulching film technology to the economy of the country. Since the crops listed are all expensive soft fruits, it 

Plastics films spread on the groimd act as a local greenhouse . The sun s energy is absorbed by the soil and is partly converted to heat. Typical soil temperatures 

Photodegradable Photolysis ECO-3 Ecolene(USIFE) Polymer-M Polygrade 

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Keeping in mind the potential applications of biodegradable plastics in agricultural applications (i.e., mulching films), the characterisation of the degradation behaviour of the copolyesters in soil is currently of great interest. 

Scott, G., 2000, Biodegradable plastics in agriculture - Working with nature. In Proceedings of the 6 Arab Conference on Materials Science, (S. Kandil, ed.), J. Appl. Polym Sci. in press. 

Scott,G. (2001) Biodegradable Plastics in Agriculture, ICS-UNIDO, Alexandria, In press. 

Biodegradable plastics in agriculture 453 Table 17.3 Yields of cotton fibre with and without mulching films in Israel ... 

Ideal performance of biodegradable plastics in agriculture. Eb = elongation at break, IPa,b = time-controlled induction periods during which mechanical and chemical properties do not change. 

These are some of the problems, which need to be addressed to define a standard for utilization of plastic biodegradable materials in agriculture. 

Fritz, J., Sandhofer, M., Stacher, C., and Braun, R., 2002, Strategies for Detecting Undesired Ecotoxicological Effects of Biodegradable Materials in Agricultural Application. 7 World Conf. on Biodegradable Polymers and Plastics, Tirrenia (Pisa, Italy), 4-8 June, pp. 59. 

Agricultural mulching film is one of the typical applications for biodegradable plastics. Currently, Bionolle mulching film is commonly used in Japan, and is an important market for us. However, some farmers are anxious about the effects of repeated use of biodegradable plastic on the farm. We, as a manufacturer of Bionolle, need to accumulate knowledge on such usage in the farm. 

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