Abstract
Around 280,000,000 (280 million!) tons of synthetic polymers were produced for subsequent use in 2011. An annual increase in per-capita consumption of around 5% is expected through 2015. In light of these numbers, one must question the impact this consumption and use have on the environment. This concerns not only the resulting high volumes of waste produced but also issues such as recycling, energy, renewable raw materials, and sustainability. Close relationships and interactions exist between all these fields, which should not be ignored but are, nevertheless, all too often insufficiently considered in current discussions in these fields.
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Notes
- 1.
Other literature limits the use of the term “biopolymer” to unmodified naturally occurring polymers such as proteins or natural rubber.
- 2.
The term white biotechnology is used to describe biotechnology used for industrial purposes. With this technology, basic raw materials, pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, and monomers are produced using microorganisms or enzymes in so-called bioreactors.
- 3.
During its life, a cow eats, on average, 16 kg maize per kilogram of beef produced from the animal after slaughter.
References
Aspinall GO (ed) (1983) The polysaccharides. Academic, New York
Habibi Y, Lucia LA (2012) Polysaccharide building blocks: a sustainable approach to the development of renewable materials. Wiley, Hoboken, NJ
Ramawat KG, Mérillon JM (2015) Polysaccharides: bioactivity and biotechnology. Springer, Heidelberg
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Koltzenburg, S., Maskos, M., Nuyken, O. (2017). Polymers and the Environment. In: Polymer Chemistry. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49279-6_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49279-6_21
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