Polylactic Acid (PLA): Improve It, Use It, and Dump It Faster

Today, people enjoy an easy lifestyle. However, this comfort has come with a price because of plastic that is thrown away after single-use. As such, governments around the world have pushed for biodegradable plastics to be produced, especially for food packaging that can be easily seen in a supermarket, for example. Using plastic for only one time has resulted in environmental pollution. As such, to solve this problem, Polylactic acid (PLA) has been introduced as an alternative bio-based plastic to replace artificial petroleum-based plastic because it comes from renewable resources and is biodegradable. Furthermore, the development of the properties of PLA could solve the problem of the weakness of the packaging applications. In this article, the property of PLA was expanded to become a hygienic PLA through the addition of antibacterial agents. This was also done by introducing two alternative approaches for waste management: PLA recycling and degradation. However, some key research is still needed to improve the properties and waste management of PLA that is being questioned from the reprocessing and acceleration of the PLA (bio)degradation.