Plastics are being used virtually everywhere and have become an almost indispensable part of everyday life.

Some are permanent objects, intended for a long-term use. Others, actually a major portion of plastics population, are found as short-term or single-use articles and include bags, wrappings, containers, bottles, pens, etc.

The extensive use of plastics therefore leads to the consequence that plastic residues are found all over the planet, potentially harming wildlife and littering the remotest places. The majority of ordinary plastic products will remain for centuries or more, since they are composed of huge and unbreakable molecular polymer chains.

Indeed, the plastic transformation industries traditionally use, as primary matter, mixtures of extruded plastics chips with additives, which are transformed in objects, such as bags, films, bottles, containers, etc. through blowing, extrusion, milling or injection.

To minimize the problems of pollution by plastics, recycling of all plastic products would be ideal. However, such a complete recycling of plastic material is difficult to achieve, since recycling facilities are not available everywhere or are too remote and the population compliance too poor to be cost effective. Then emerges a need to find biodegradable substitutes.