what's the difference between plastic and bioplastic?

Plastic is an indispensable material for human life due to its lightness, workability, versatility, strength and cost-effectiveness. However, traditional plastics are produced from fossil resources such as oil or gas that are depleting and impacting the environment. Moreover, at the end-of-life stage, despite potential recycling, a large amount of plastic globally is still going to landfill or dispersed in the environment. For these reasons, science and industry are increasingly focusing on the development and production of bioplastics in recent years. Bioplastics are by definition those plastics that are completely or partially derived from renewable (bio-based) resources AND/OR that are biodegradable. The idea behind this is to solve the dependence on fossil sources and the possible end-of-life pollution of conventional plastics.

Therefore, not all bioplastics are from renewable sources and not all bioplastics are biodegradable, and in general can be divided into 3 categories of bioplastics. There are some bioplastics, such as PLA, PHAs and PBS, that are both from renewable sources (partially or totally) and biodegradable, others that are biodegradable but derive from fossil sources (PBAT, PCL) and others that derive from renewable sources but are not biodegradable (bio-PE, bio-PET). However, despite this potential, bioplastics are still a niche, accounting for not even 1% of all plastics produced.