Seema Agarwal
Abstract
The extreme stability of polymers has challenged society with the accumulation of plastic waste and its management worldwide. Therefore, new and refined old concepts are urgently needed for the recycling and environmental degradability of plastics reducing and avoiding the accumulation of plastic waste. In this context, one of the questions raised very often is whether biodegradable polymers can be one of the solutions to the problem of plastic waste. For some of the specific applications, the answer is yes but for many other applications new recycling concepts would be preferred.
In the talk, the present scenario of the environmental acceptability of polymers and the opportunities offered by biodegradable disassemblable composites and recyclable cross-linked polymers will be discussed.
About Seema Agarwal
Seema Agarwal is an academic director and professor at the University of Bayreuth in Germany. Her research interests are biopolymers, smart and functional polymers and fibers with special morphologies. She has published over 240 peer-reviewed articles. She is an Alexander von Humboldt fellow and got the Hermann-Schnell award of the German Chemical Society for research on biodegradable polymers. She is the chief-editor of e-Polymers.