The word bioplastics causes a lot of confusion. Because the word starts with the prefix “bio”, people believe that bioplastics are biodegradable. That is not the case at all.
We can manufacture any kind of permanent plastic, like the plastics we all know, using existing biomass material instead of fossil material. Some major projects like Coca-Cola and so on are suggesting that, in five or 10 years, all the stacks of plastic bottles they used to sell bottled drinks will be made from “bio” sources. That is not impossible, because those plastics can be blended with plastics from another source to make them recyclable.
The problem is when people send materials that are “biofragmentable”, biodegradable, for recycling, which is total nonsense. It costs more to manufacture materials that do not even last. We don't want to operate like that. When we manufacture plastics, we absolutely have to make sure that they contribute to sustainable development, that they are recycled and made into something new.
Currently, using the word “bioplastic” causes a huge amount of confusion, with students and with the general public alike.