3.7 Scientific Solutions of Plastic Pollution in Water
Reservoirs
Science and technology have a vital and active role in our daily lives. The modern
development is all due to the science and its applicable form – technology. Plastics
that were produced by the man using his scientific knowledge of chemistry and
synthetic polyesters has now a strong demand to stop the same destroying our
environment, therefore, the first strategy that we shall apply to degrade plastic
pollutants in the environment most importantly in water bodies such as rivers,
lakes, ponds, seas, and oceans should be the same—science and technology. A
few methods that we can employ to tackle plastic pollution in water are discussed
below.
3.7.1 Bioplastics Can Be a Replacement for Synthetic Plastics
Bioplastics are natural biopolymers obtained from biomass and are biodegradable.
These can be produced from a number of biological sources such as plants, agricultural residues, and microorganisms. These sustainable plastics or bioplastics can
therefore replace the synthetic versions of plastics that affect the seas and oceans and
speaking on a broader term - the whole atmosphere (Bhat et al. 2017). Bioplastics are
produced more easily using plant sources and using their biomass such as lignin
from wood, starch from potatoes, and rice. There are a number of studies that are
successful in creating different types of bioplastics from plant and microbial sources
some of these studies along with their brief description are given in the tabular form
in Table 3.2.
There are a number of feedstocks with a wide variety of methods that had been
and are currently being investigated for the production of biopolymers used to form
bioplastics. The reason that these polymers can extinguish the pollution caused by
synthetic polymers or plastic is their closeness in properties however, with an
advantageous difference that these are derived from biomass and are biodegradable
unlike plastics which are the petrochemical derivatives and are nearly impossible to
degrade. The plastics if incinerated or burnt to generate electricity, energy or other
useful products they still create a huge problem in terms of their toxic gases; hence if
we want to save our land, air, and most importantly water sources like seas and
oceans, we need to replace synthetic plastics with bioplastics. This strategy can help
us to reduce plastic litter in oceans as well as in land saving our planet and natural
habitat.
A comparison between the properties of bioplastics and synthetic plastics
(Table 3.3) gives us the knowledge on how we can replace these plastics with
their natural alternatives such as bioplastic, so that we can replace the pollutioncausing plastic but not the services it provides us.
104
F. Muneer et al.
Reservoirs
Science and technology have a vital and active role in our daily lives. The modern
development is all due to the science and its applicable form – technology. Plastics
that were produced by the man using his scientific knowledge of chemistry and
synthetic polyesters has now a strong demand to stop the same destroying our
environment, therefore, the first strategy that we shall apply to degrade plastic
pollutants in the environment most importantly in water bodies such as rivers,
lakes, ponds, seas, and oceans should be the same—science and technology. A
few methods that we can employ to tackle plastic pollution in water are discussed
below.
3.7.1 Bioplastics Can Be a Replacement for Synthetic Plastics
Bioplastics are natural biopolymers obtained from biomass and are biodegradable.
These can be produced from a number of biological sources such as plants, agricultural residues, and microorganisms. These sustainable plastics or bioplastics can
therefore replace the synthetic versions of plastics that affect the seas and oceans and
speaking on a broader term - the whole atmosphere (Bhat et al. 2017). Bioplastics are
produced more easily using plant sources and using their biomass such as lignin
from wood, starch from potatoes, and rice. There are a number of studies that are
successful in creating different types of bioplastics from plant and microbial sources
some of these studies along with their brief description are given in the tabular form
in Table 3.2.
There are a number of feedstocks with a wide variety of methods that had been
and are currently being investigated for the production of biopolymers used to form
bioplastics. The reason that these polymers can extinguish the pollution caused by
synthetic polymers or plastic is their closeness in properties however, with an
advantageous difference that these are derived from biomass and are biodegradable
unlike plastics which are the petrochemical derivatives and are nearly impossible to
degrade. The plastics if incinerated or burnt to generate electricity, energy or other
useful products they still create a huge problem in terms of their toxic gases; hence if
we want to save our land, air, and most importantly water sources like seas and
oceans, we need to replace synthetic plastics with bioplastics. This strategy can help
us to reduce plastic litter in oceans as well as in land saving our planet and natural
habitat.
A comparison between the properties of bioplastics and synthetic plastics
(Table 3.3) gives us the knowledge on how we can replace these plastics with
their natural alternatives such as bioplastic, so that we can replace the pollutioncausing plastic but not the services it provides us.
104
F. Muneer et al.