Bioplastics: a green innovation or just another plastic problem?

Bioplastics are often said to be the solution to the plastic problem and an opportunity to develop local, sustainable source materials for consumer goods. But as soon as mainstream industries, including petrochemicals, see an opportunity, they run away with it.

Pressured to stop generating massive amounts of waste, fossil and consumer goods industries are looking to bioplastics as a way to prop up their brand image and meet increasingly stringent sustainability rules. But as they lobby for higher acceptance of these innovative plastics, consumers are faced with lacking infrastructure to process them when no longer in use. So are bioplastics in Europe a key to escaping the waste crisis or a bandaid to throw-away culture?