Plastic has been invented more than 100 years and changed the lifestyle of human beings. Nowadays, conventional plastic is reported as the most terrible invention due to its non-biodegradable properties. Plastic waste is the major source of municipal solid waste to landfill sites in Hong Kong and other countries.

On 11^th April 2018, Dr. LIU Yaohui, Keane, Teaching Fellow of Civil Engineering Programme, gave a seminar on the topic of “Biodegradable Plastic, an Option to Control Plastic Waste Pollution”. This seminar was organized by Research Centre for Waste and Resource Management, which is support by a grant from the Research Grant Council of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region, China (Project No.: UGC/IDS25/15)

In the seminar, Dr. LIU has introduced the classification of plastics and treatment of plastic wastes, including landfill disposal, incineration and recycling. He also reviewed recently developments of biodegradable plastics, such as starch- and protein-based polymers, polylactic acid, polyhydroxyalkanoates and polycaprolactons. The degradation mechanisms and degradability of the biodegradable polymers were introduced and the potential application of the biodegradable plastic in the future was analyzed.