Prof. Amar Mohanty, Department of Plant Agriculture, spoke to CBC Science about bio-plastics, which aim to curb environmental impacts.

Bio-plastics can be broken down into carbon dioxide, water and compost under certain conditions without leaving behind microplastics, Mohanty told CBC.

He is the Ontario Agricultural College’s Distinguished Research Chair in sustainable biomaterials and has been developing and researching bio-plastic and bio-based materials for more than 30 years.

Mohanty is the director of the Bio-Products Discovery and Development Centre (BDDC) and focuses on engineering new sustainable materials and innovations in bioproducts to reduce society’s use of fossil fuels for mitigating climate change.