TABLE OF CONTENTS Francesco Degli Innocenti
A tremendous amount of work has been done at international level during the last decade to study the behaviour of the biodegradable polymers when exposed to different environments. However, looking at the scientific literature published in the 1990s, it appears that most of the work was focused on biodegradation under composting conditions [1-6], while other environments were neglected. The standardisation groups established both in Europe: CEN TC261 SC4 WG2 (European Standardisation Technical Committee on Packaging) and in the USA: ASTM D20.96 (ASTM subcommittee on Environmentally Degradable Plastics and Biobased Products) were mainly interested in defining the compostability of plastics, that is, the set of features plastic products must have in order to be safely recycled into compost. The reason for this preference was linked to the concurrent development of a new solid waste management policy, which aimed at reducing the use of landfilling to a minimum by the promotion of recycling. In Europe, the European Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste (94/62/EC) declared that biological treatment (composting and biogasification) of packaging was a form of recycling [7]. Consequently, criteria and standard test methods were needed in order to verify the compatibility of plastics with composting and this stimulated research and standardisation.
Several products made with biodegradable polymers are not made to be disposed of via composting at the end of their commercial life but rather to end up directly in soil. The biodegradable plastics...
