Abstract:
The degradation of poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) poly(lactic acid) (PLA) poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) and poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) under simulated landfill conditions were studied using Central composite design (CCD) with three levels and three independent variables: percentage of sludge in the medium, temperature and percentage of initial oxygen in the bottle. The statistical results showed that the responses of weight loss (%) in 30 days of all biodegradable plastics were significantly affected by the temperature whereas insignificantly affected by the initial oxygen in the bottle. The effect of interaction between the percentage of sludge in the medium and temperature at 30 days was found only in the bottle with PHBV. Based on the contour plot generated from Response surface methodology (RSM), the conditions of 50% of sludge in the medium, 61 °C and 21% of initial oxygen in the bottle were selected to continuously study the degradation profiles of these biodegradable plastics in 90 days. The results showed that the degradations ranking order were PHBV> PLA > PBS >PBAT. Only PHBV was completely degraded in 60 days. After burying under tested conditions, many cracks and irregular roughness were presented on the PHBV and PLA surface while slightly smooth surfaces were still found on PBS and PBAT. All plastics showed the decreasing in thermal stability and the percentage of carbon content in molecular structure especially PLA. The changes of chemical structure of plastics were revealed by the Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The microbial communities during the burying under tested conditions were investigated using Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). The results showed that bacteria were more diverse than fungi. Most of bacteria that found in medium are uncultured while Candida tropicalis presented in the medium of all plastics.