 Corresponding author: Manali Shah Department of Botany, Bioinformatics and Climate Change Impacts Management, School of Science, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Copyright © 2021 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Liscense 4.0. Bioplastic for future: A review then and now Manali Shah * , Sanjukta Rajhans, Himanshu A. Pandya and Archana U. Mankad Department of Botany, Bioinformatics and Climate Change Impacts Management, School of Science, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2021, 09(02), 056–067 Publication history: Received on 15 January 2021; revised on 11 February 2021; accepted on 13 February 2021 Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2021.9.2.0054 Abstract Petrochemical based plastics have been widely used as packaging materials, as they have good barrier properties, stiffness, tensile strength & tear strength. Although in great demand plastics have many disadvantages like very low water vapour transmission rate, non- biodegradability etc. which further causes environmental pollution. Keeping in mind about the pollution and harm caused to the nature, newer concepts about the use of bio-plastics came into force. Bio-plastics are produced from the biological sources such as potato, potato peels, corn, sugarcane, wheat, rice, banana peels etc. These plastics are environment friendly & biodegradable, and are safer option than the petroleum-based plastics. These biodegradable plastics break down into carbon dioxide, water & inorganic compounds and degrade completely. The time-line, sources and other important details about the bio-plastics have been presented in this review paper. Keywords: Bioplastic; Biodegradable; Renewable; Eco-friendly; Plasticizers 1. Introduction Due to their versatile, inexpensive, lightweight and excellent thermal properties; petrochemical based plastics such as Poly Ethyl Terepthalate (PET), Poly Butylene Terepthalate (PBT), Polypropylene (PP), Polystyrene (PS), Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) are widely used in our day-to-day life [1,2,3]. Plastics are used to make products such as water bottles, coffee cups, forks, knives, plastic bags to carry groceries, etc. Petrochemical based plastics are not eco-friendly because of their high content of carbon footprint [4]. Properties like cheapness, durability and lightness make plastics far more useful than the metals, wood, papers etc. They are useful in almost all the industrial fields. Excessive use of plastics has caused severe impacts to the environment, and it is estimated that about 34 million tons of plastics are produced per year by humans. Out of that only 7% is recycled and the remaining 93% is dumped into the landfills, oceans and seas [5]. In 2015, more than 300 million tons of plastic was used in the world [6]. The incineration or burning of plastic liberates various toxic emissions such as carbon dioxide and methane, these greenhouse gases affect the climate worldwide [7]. Petrochemical based products cause many problems like accumulation of waste in land area, in natural habitats like sea, oceans etc [8]. Due to plastic pollution, humans are also suffering from the disturbance of thyroid hormone levels [9]. Due to the use of chemical additives during the production of plastic, they are toxic and carcinogenic. Efforts to reduce plastic consumption has occurred in many areas which have further promoted the recycling of plastic. Additives such as phthalate plasticizers and brominated flame retardants are used in the production of plastics [10]. Plasticizers are substances that are added to plastics to increase their flexibility, durability, transparency and longevity. Therefore, now scientists are looking for other alternative options.