2. Main applications for these biopolymers

Biopolymers have an increasing number of industrial applications (table 2 ), due to a trend in industry to substitute petroleum-derived polymers, whose reserves are not inexhaustible, with biodegradable compounds. These are known as bioplastics. . However, this idea is not new, since as early as 1930, Ford used soy proteins to produce car interior parts and then body parts. Today, however, bioplastics are being given fresh impetus by the difficulties of recycling our ever-increasing waste, the need to valorize agricultural by-products and concerns about increasingly expensive oil supplies.