IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i9p5032-d799628.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bio-Based Materials Riding the Wave of Sustainability: Common Misconceptions, Opportunities, Challenges and the Way Forward

Author

Listed:
  • Natasya Nabilla Hairon Azhar

    (Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
    Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia)

  • Desmond Teck-Chye Ang

    (Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia)

  • Rosazlin Abdullah

    (Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
    Centre for Research in Biotechnology for Agriculture, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia)

  • Jennifer Ann Harikrishna

    (Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
    Centre for Research in Biotechnology for Agriculture, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia)

  • Acga Cheng

    (Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia)

Abstract

Solid waste disposal, particularly of plastic and rubber, significantly impacts the environment and human health; thus, encouraging consumers to u sustainable alternatives is essential to ensure a resilient future. In recent decades, bio-based material research has primarily focused on bioplastics and, accordingly, current knowledge of alternative sustainable materials (such as biorubber) is fragmented, with consumer misconceptions posing a key challenge. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals of bio-based materials, in addition to common misconceptions about them. The findings of a public survey that aimed to assess consumers’ attitudes towards, as well as their awareness and perceptions of, conventional and sustainable alternative materials, particularly oxo-biodegradable rubbers, are also reported in this paper. Despite their unfamiliarity with the terms ‘bio-based’ and ‘oxo-biodegradable’, most respondents had a positive view of bio-based products and expressed an interest in reducing their use of conventional products in favour of sustainable alternatives. The results also revealed that consumers are willing to spend more on sustainable alternatives because they are aware of the environmental issues associated with solid waste. This study provides new insights into knowledge gaps and challenges that must be addressed to promote the prudent use of sustainable materials in a fast-changing world.

Suggested Citation

  • Natasya Nabilla Hairon Azhar & Desmond Teck-Chye Ang & Rosazlin Abdullah & Jennifer Ann Harikrishna & Acga Cheng, 2022. "Bio-Based Materials Riding the Wave of Sustainability: Common Misconceptions, Opportunities, Challenges and the Way Forward," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-15, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:9:p:5032-:d:799628
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/5032/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/9/5032/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Adele Folino & Aimilia Karageorgiou & Paolo S. Calabrò & Dimitrios Komilis, 2020. "Biodegradation of Wasted Bioplastics in Natural and Industrial Environments: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-49, July.
    2. Adriana Gómez-Sanabria & Gregor Kiesewetter & Zbigniew Klimont & Wolfgang Schoepp & Helmut Haberl, 2022. "Potential for future reductions of global GHG and air pollutants from circular waste management systems," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    3. Emily Elhacham & Liad Ben-Uri & Jonathan Grozovski & Yinon M. Bar-On & Ron Milo, 2020. "Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass," Nature, Nature, vol. 588(7838), pages 442-444, December.
    4. Sabine Pahl & Kayleigh J. Wyles & Richard C. Thompson, 2017. "Channelling passion for the ocean towards plastic pollution," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 1(10), pages 697-699, October.
    5. James Gaffey & Helena McMahon & Emily Marsh & Kaisa Vehmas & Tiina Kymäläinen & John Vos, 2021. "Understanding Consumer Perspectives of Bio-Based Products—A Comparative Case Study from Ireland and The Netherlands," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, May.
    6. K. Kvale & A. E. F. Prowe & C.-T. Chien & A. Landolfi & A. Oschlies, 2021. "Zooplankton grazing of microplastic can accelerate global loss of ocean oxygen," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-8, December.
    7. Abdullah Al Mamun & Syed Ali Fazal & Ghazali Bin Ahmad & Mohd Rafi Bin Yaacob & Mohd. Rosli Mohamad, 2018. "Willingness to Pay for Environmentally Friendly Products among Low-Income Households along Coastal Peninsular Malaysia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-19, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zulfiya E. Bayazitova & Javier Rodrigo-Ilarri & María-Elena Rodrigo-Clavero & Aigul S. Kurmanbayeva & Natalya M. Safronova & Anargul S. Belgibayeva & Sayagul B. Zhaparova & Gulim E. Baikenova & Anuarb, 2022. "Relevance of Environmental Surveys on the Design of a New Municipal Waste Management System on the City of Kokshetau (Kazakhstan)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-15, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Seeram Ramakrishna & Wayne Hu & Rajan Jose, 2023. "Sustainability in Numbers by Data Analytics," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 643-655, June.
    2. Alessandro De Matteis & Fethiye Burcu Turkmen Ceylan & Mona Daoud & Anne Kahuthu, 2022. "A systemic approach to tackling ocean plastic debris," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 136-145, March.
    3. Mohammad Nurul Alam & Osarodion Ogiemwonyi & Ibrahim. E. Hago & Noor Azlinna Azizan & Fariza Hashim & Md Sazzad Hossain, 2023. "Understanding Consumer Environmental Ethics and the Willingness to Use Green Products," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(1), pages 21582440221, January.
    4. Huston, Simon, 2020. "Academic letter on French Indochina War: metaphors for strategic insight," OSF Preprints 2p9by, Center for Open Science.
    5. Kılkış, Şiir & Ulpiani, Giulia & Vetters, Nadja, 2024. "Visions for climate neutrality and opportunities for co-learning in European cities," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    6. Malak Anshassi & Timothy G. Townsend, 2023. "The hidden economic and environmental costs of eliminating kerb-side recycling," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 6(8), pages 919-928, August.
    7. Xiao, Yihao & Xue, Yahui, 2024. "A review on application of microwave in cement life cycle," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    8. Cecília Szigeti & Zoltán Major & Dániel Róbert Szabó & Áron Szennay, 2023. "The Ecological Footprint of Construction Materials—A Standardized Approach from Hungary," Resources, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-15, January.
    9. Mingyue Yang & Ningyin Liu & Xinjing Wang & Yan Zhang, 2023. "Chinese cities exhibit diverse allometric growth patterns in material metabolism," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(6), pages 1626-1638, December.
    10. Xi Sun & Sophie M. Behr & Merve Kücük, 2024. "Enabling Circular Economy Dynamics in the Plastics and Steel Industries: Perspectives from Multiple Stakeholders," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 2093, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    11. Zhao, Shufeng & Guo, Hongyu & Liu, Ang & Chen, Zhenhong & Li, Guofu & Chen, Linyong & Shen, Ye, 2024. "Methane production and microbial community characteristics in the co-digestion of biodegradable plastics with lignite," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    12. Avinash Manjula-Basavanna & Anna M. Duraj-Thatte & Neel S. Joshi, 2024. "Mechanically Tunable, Compostable, Healable and Scalable Engineered Living Materials," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    13. Egger, Claudine & Plutzar, Christoph & Mayer, Andreas & Dullinger, Iwona & Dullinger, Stefan & Essl, Franz & Gattringer, Andreas & Bohner, Andreas & Haberl, Helmut & Gaube, Veronika, 2022. "Using the SECLAND model to project future land-use until 2050 under climate and socioeconomic change in the LTSER region Eisenwurzen (Austria)," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    14. Tomohisa Kanazawa & Mitsutaka Matsumoto & Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto & Kiyotaka Tahara, 2022. "Environmental Impact of Remanufacturing Mining Machinery," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-16, July.
    15. Franz Schug & David Frantz & Dominik Wiedenhofer & Helmut Haberl & Doris Virág & Sebastian van der Linden & Patrick Hostert, 2023. "High‐resolution mapping of 33 years of material stock and population growth in Germany using Earth Observation data," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(1), pages 110-124, February.
    16. Bolson, Natanael & Yutkin, Maxim & Rees, William & Patzek, Tadeusz, 2022. "Resilience rankings and trajectories of world's countries," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    17. Liliana Lizárraga-Mendiola & Luis D. López-León & Gabriela A. Vázquez-Rodríguez, 2022. "Municipal Solid Waste as a Substitute for Virgin Materials in the Construction Industry: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-20, December.
    18. Moritz A. Drupp & Jasper N. Meya & Björn Bos & Simon Disque, 2024. "Heterogeneous Substitutability Preferences," CESifo Working Paper Series 11197, CESifo.
    19. Zhang, Junting & Qin, Quande & Li, Guangming & Tseng, Chao-Heng & Fang, Guohao, 2023. "Assessing the impact of waste separation on system transition and environmental performance through a city-scale life cycle assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    20. Adriana Gómez-Sanabria & Florian Lindl, 2024. "The crucial role of circular waste management systems in cutting waste leakage into aquatic environments," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:9:p:5032-:d:799628. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.