Material	10 % Starch
	Starch can be used as biodegradable additive or replacement material in traditional oil-based commodity plastics. If starch is added to petroleum derived polymers (e.g. PE), it allows disintegration of the blend, but not its biodegradability.
Category	Biopolymers
Products	Compostable bags
Environmen- tal notes	Disposal: Starch can in theory accelerate the disintegration or fragmentation of the synthetic polymer chains. Microbial action consumes the starch, thereby creating pores in the material, which weaken it and enable it to break apart. Disintegration of starch-plastic blends is not the same as biodegradation. Their breakdown, also under optimal conditions, is quite slow. Starch content needs to exceed 60% before significant material breakdown occurs.
Additional Info	In 1993 LDPE-starch blends were commercialized under the trade name EcostarŪ
Photo	Thomas Nissen (Computer graphics)
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