Study of the Biodegradability of Polymer Materials for Use in Agriculture

Mulch films are intensively used to increase productivity in agriculture. A large amount of plastic waste from mulch films is accumulated in the topsoil of agricultural fields around the world. A solution to this problem is the replacement of disposable plastics by biodegradable ones. The paper presents the results of tests of polylactide-based biodegradable materials for agriculture. It is shown that despite hydrophobicity polylactide is easily hydrolyzed, which subsequently leads to destruction of the films based on it. An analysis of the biodegradability of the materials obtained shows that after incubation in a soil for 90 days the weight loss of pure PLA of various grades is lower than that of PLA/PBAT and PLA/NR mixtures and the thermophysical characteristics of PLA change: its melting temperature decreases by 2–5°C and the degree of crystallinity decreases by 2–6%.