The stability of polymers against environmental factors, chemicals, microorganisms, and hydrolysis has challenged society with the accumulation of plastic waste and its management worldwide. Large amounts of plastic litter accumulate in the environment and disintegrate into microplastics (small pieces less than 5 mm in size), a topic of real concern especially for products and applications where the plastics are used for a short time before becoming waste, and where they are difficult to recover after use and remain in the environment. Whether biodegradable polymers can be one of the solutions to the problem of plastic waste is a question very often raised in this context. Although the use of biodegradable polymers appears to be highly promising based on recent and past studies, several aspects need to be considered further regarding environmental sustainability, acceptability, and degradability in the complex natural environment. Intensive efforts need to be invested in developing new environmentally biodegradable polymers and smart mechanisms of degradation after use in the environment. The present viewpoint article discusses the present scenario of the environmental acceptability of biodegradable polymers and the opportunities and challenges they offer regarding solving the problem of microplastics and their impact on the environment.

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可生物降解的聚合物：提供无微塑料环境的当前机遇和挑战

聚合物抵抗环境因素，化学物质，微生物和水解的稳定性已经在全球范围内对塑料废物的积累及其管理提出了挑战。大量的塑料垃圾会在环境中累积并分解成微塑料（尺寸小于5毫米的小碎片），这是真正引起关注的主题，尤其是对于塑料在变废之前短时间使用的产品和应用以及使用后很难恢复并留在环境中。在这种情况下，人们经常提出一个问题，即可生物降解的聚合物是否可以作为解决塑料废物问题的方法之一。根据最近和过去的研究，尽管使用可生物降解的聚合物似乎非常有前途，关于复杂自然环境中的环境可持续性，可接受性和可降解性，还需要进一步考虑几个方面。需要投入大量精力来开发新的可环境生物降解的聚合物以及在环境中使用后降解的智能机理。本观点文章讨论了可生物降解聚合物在环境上的可接受性的现状，以及它们在解决微塑料问题及其对环境的影响方面所提供的机遇和挑战。