Verbeteren van Duurzame PLA-biodegradatie: Monitoring- en Voorbehandelingsstrategieën

Plastics have greatly revolved around our life-style for years and benefited us in many ways. PlasticsEurope reported that plastics are usually used for long-lasting big parts applications such as in construction, automobile and electronics. However, plastic utilization for packaging has the major share which is often regarded for a single-use purpose. Consequently, this implies a high volume of such post-consumer waste. Moreover, due to the economic burden faced by the municipality and the increase in urban populations, public authorities have pointed out waste management as a major challenge. Improper waste management and an unsound policy for plastic waste have contributed toward negative impact to the environment and climate. As a matter of fact, plastics are the most abundant type of debris found in the marine environment. Whilst literature reports on proper plastic waste handling from the engineering management perspective, like Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), technical knowledge on treatment techniques focusing on the optimization of microbial biodegradation of such waste is scarce. This doctoral dissertation will study the potential of providing sustainable methods (green energy) to enhance plastic waste degradation. By integrating microbes in the plastic degradation process, the study aims to determine which type of plastics degrades with which microorganisms. The process control optimization will also be studied in detail and the by-products yielded from the process will be identified for determining the value added purpose which complements Circular Economy aspects.