23 Feb 2022 --- Brazil and Portugal-based scientists have developed an environmentally sustainable process to produce biodegradable plastic using pigment extracted from yeast by “green” solvents. In an article published in the journal Green Chemistry, the researchers show this biodegradable plastic could in the future be used in “smart” packaging with antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. Dr. Cassamo Ussemane Mussagy from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, tells PackagingInsights: “With this work, we intend to demonstrate that it is possible to produce bioplastics through a simple and eco-friendly process by replacing conventional organic solvents with more benign equivalents, as well as with natural pigments and plasticizer agents that can be derived from renewable sources.”With similar applications to those of conventional plastics derived from oil, gas and coal, which take hundreds of years to decompose, bioplastics produced from sugarcane, corn and potatoes are starting to become commercially available, according to the researchers.
