4. Environmental aspects: end-of-life of degradable materials

4.1 Biodegradation

The degradation of commodity thermoplastics prepared by radical polymerization, such as LDPE, PMMA and PS, is not possible due to the stability of their C–C backbone. rROP is now well established for preparing degradable materials by a chemical degradation process under accelerated conditions (most often in a concentrated basic medium).

Many authors consider these proofs of concept to be very promising. Nevertheless, the end-of-life analysis of these materials needs to be further developed. Agarwal et al.