Accelerated Biodegradation of Agriculture Film Based on Aromatic–Aliphatic Copolyester in Soil under Mesophilic Conditions

A study was conducted on the biodegradation of aromatic–aliphatic copolyester-based agricultural film in soil at 25 °C. The polymer is known to be biodegradable under composting conditions although rather recalcitrant under mesophilic conditions. The material investigated comprised of the copolyester filled with approximately 25% of starch containing biodegradable plasticizers, and its behavior was compared to the corresponding material without the filler. Mineralization followed by CO2 production merely reached the point of about 6% after 100 days of incubation in the pure copolyester film, whereas the value of around 53% was recorded for the filled copolyester film, which exceeded the readily biodegradable starch filler content in the material by more than 20% and could be accounted for biodegradation of the copolyester. It was suggested that the accelerated copolyester biodegradation in the starch-filled material was most likely explained by the increase in the active surface area of the material avail...