In recent years there has been a marked increase in interest in biodegradable materials for use in packaging, agriculture, medicine, and other areas. In particular, biodegradable polymer materials are of interest. Several new plastics have been launched that are biodegradable.
Rolco Inc. of Kasota, MN is launching a line of board game pieces made of thermoplastic biocomposite compounds that contain up to 50% recycled wood by-product. The compound combines agricultural waste, recycled plastics and patented additives. The waste includes material such as wood flour or rice hulls and alloys them with recycled polymers using proprietary, patented additives. The resulting material combines the durability of plastic with the appearance and workability of wood. A new roofing material has been developed by US company ArmorLite that is 100% recyclable and has no waste during manufacturing. The ArmorLite roofing material is made from an acrylic-styrene-acrylonitrile (ASA capstock and an ABS base layer that costs about US$0.56/sq mtr compared to US$0.33/sq mtr for asphalt.

A newly developed family of biodegradable polymers has shown potential for use in intracellular delivery and sustained release of therapeutic drugs to the acidic environments of tumors, inflammatory tissues and intracellular vesicles that hold foreign matter. These polymers have several advantages over existing biodegradable polymers. Among them, the polymers called polyketals are biodegradable into FDA (Food and Drug Administration)-approved compounds, such as food additives. Synthesis is a simple and easily customized process. Degradation of the polymer does not produce inflammation-causing acid, but instead generates membrane-permeable products that allow all of the polymer's byproducts to diffuse outside the cell. That means byproducts shouldn't accumulate in a patient's tissue and cause inflammation. However, polyketal nanoparticles use the cell's acid to hydrolyze into hydrophilic compounds that can release encapsulated therapeutics at an accelerated rate in the acidic environments to which they are targeted. Also, unlike polyester-based biomaterials, polyketal nanoparticles do not generate acid when they degrade. Researchers don't know yet whether polyketals will be less inflammatory than current polymers used for drug delivery, but expect to evaluate this response within the year. The problem with using polyesters as drug delivery vehicles is that most of the illnesses being treated are chronic diseases requiring weekly injections, yet polyesters take months to degrade. Polyketals hydrolyze in a week, diffuse out of the cell and are then excreted outside of the cell. Potential applications of polyketals include the delivery of anti-oxidants to treat acute liver failure in people who have suffered an alcohol or acetaminophen overdose. In these patients, the liver stops functioning because macrophage cells in the liver create reactive oxygen species. One of the treatments is the delivery of superoxide dismutase, an enzyme that essentially detoxifies superoxide. Other applications include the use of polyketals in any type of protein-based vaccine, apossibility that researchers have not yet pursued. Yet another application is protein delivery for a wide range of therapeutics, including insulin delivery for Type 1 diabetics - alleviating the need for multiple injections.
Polyester-amide (PEA) polymers, used for specific drug delivery, are widely recognised as naturally biodegradable and biocompatible compounds which naturally degrade in the body into amino acid components, the building blocks of proteins. SurModics offer five biodegradable polymers suitable for site specific drug delivery - PolyActive and OctoDEX licensed by Octoplus, SynBiosys licensed by InnoCore, and Eureka, which is internally developed. PEA polymers are well suited for delivering small molecule drugs.
New synthetic biodegradable polymers will find application as BMP carriers for bone tissue engineering. Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are biologically active molecules capable of inducing new bone formation and are expected to be used clinically in combination with biomaterials such as bone-graft substitutes to promote bone repair. The carrier materials for BMPs have to not only secure the BMPs in the local area and diffuse them afterwards, but also to provide scaffolding for the newly formed bone.

The technique of keyhole surgery minimises scarring, speeds healing and reduces the risk of infection. However, it is extremely difficult to carry out delicate surgical procedures accurately in a confined space, such as implanting a bulky device or knotting a suture with the right amount of tension. In the latter case, if a knot is pulled too tight, necrosis of the surrounding tissue can occur, but if it is too loose, the incision won�t heal properly and scar tissue develops. The situation is to change, thanks to an innovative �shape shifting� plastic that, according to its developers, Dr Andreas Lendlein and Dr Robert Langer, could be fashioned into novel medical devices such as �smart� surgical sutures that allow an optimised tightening of the knot. This shape memory capability could also allow bulky implants to be placed in the body through small incisions or perform complex mechanical deformations automatically in a confined space. In addition, these polymers are biodegradable, which means they breakdown after a certain time period when inserted into the body, eliminating the need for a second operation to remove the sutures or implant.
A new biodegradable intravascular polymer stent with simultaneous incorporation of bioactive substances is being developed. Due to the thrombogenicity and permanent implant nature of metallic stents, bioresorable synthetic polymers have been proposed for stents and local drug delivery systems. Bioresorbable polyesters like poly (D,L-lactide) demonstrated excellent biocompatibility in various tissues. The specific CESP-process (Controlled Expansion of Saturated Polymers) is characterised by the use of the plasticizer carbon dioxide and allows the incorporation of bioactive substances at physiologic temperatures into the polymer bulk and the production of complex designed implants. The CESP-process is characterised by the exposure of an amorphous polymer to an inert gas at high pressure with a significant lower glass transition point. The plasticizing effect makes it possible to process polylactides at a temperature close to room temperature. The low process temperature constitutes a key advantage for thermally sensitive polymers and allows the incorporation of thermally sensitive pharmaceutical additives. To obtain some preliminary information on the biocompatibility, in vitro cell toxicity testing as well as drug release assessment was performed. It has been concluded that the new CESP-process can be used to process biodegradable polymers and to mold different stent geometries without inducing cytotoxic effects to the material. Furthermore, this procedure permits the simultaneous incorporation of bioactive substances during the molding process. Drug release kinetics can be regulated by different pore sizes of the material.