생붕괴성 플라스틱 포장재의 제조 및 제조된 소재의 안전성과 분해성 연구

유영선¹, 한정구², 이한나⁴, 박수일³, 민세철⁴^,^*

Studies on the Development of Biodegradable Plastics and Their Safety and Degradability

Young-Sun You¹, Jung-gu Han², Han-na Lee⁴, Su-il Park³, Sea-Cheol Min⁴^,^*

¹바이오소재연구소

²(주)에이유

³연세대학교

⁴서울여자대학교

¹Biomass Plastics R&D

²AU Co. LTD.

³Department of Packaging, Yonsei University

⁴Department of Food Science and Technology, Seoul Women's University

^*Corresponding author: Sea Cheol Min, Department of Food Science and Technology, Seoul Women's University, 623 Hwarangno, Nowongu, Seoul, 139-774, Korea, Tel: +82-2-970-5635; Fax: +82-2-970-5977, E-mail: smin@swu.ac.kr

ⓒ Copyright 2011 Korean Society for Food Engineering. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Jul 29, 2011; Revised: Aug 18, 2011; Accepted: Aug 19, 2011

Published Online: Aug 31, 2011

Abatract

Biodegradable plastics were developed using biodegradable pellets made of corn stalk and rice husk and their safety as food packages and their biodegradability against light (ultraviolet (UV)), heat, and fungi were evaluated. Four kinds of 50-μm biodegradable plastics were produced by extruding the mixtures of the biodegradable pellets, lowdensity polyethylene (LDPE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) with different compositions. Developed biodegradable plastics were safe to be used as food packages. The initial tensile strength and percentage elongation of the plastics were similar to those of LDPE, but the values decreased with increased their exposure time to UV and heat. The fungal biodegradability of the biodegradable plastics was higher than that of LDPE. The biodegradability of the biodegradable plastics showed potential for them to be used as sustainable food packages.

Keywords: biodegradable plastics; biodegradability; thermal degradability; photolysis; eco packaging