Polyethylene or polythene film biodegrades naturally, albeit over a long period of time. Methods are available to make it more degradable under certain conditions of sunlight, moisture, oxygen, and composting and enhancement of biodegradation by reducing the hydrophobic polymer and increasing hydrophilic properties.

If traditional polyethylene film is littered it can be unsightly, and a hazard to wildlife. Some people believe that making plastic shopping bags biodegradable is one way to try to allow the open litter to degrade.

Plastic recycling improves usage of resources. Biodegradable films need to be kept away from the usual recycling stream to prevent contaminating the polymers to be recycled.

If disposed of in a sanitary landfill, most traditional plastics do not readily decompose. The sterile conditions of a sealed landfill also deter degradation of biodegradable polymers.

Polyethylene is a polymer consisting of long chains of the monomer ethylene (IUPAC name ethene). The recommended scientific name polyethene is systematically derived from the scientific name of the monomer. In certain circumstances it is useful to use a structure–based nomenclature. In such cases IUPAC recommends poly(methylene). The difference is due to the opening up of the monomer's double bond upon polymerisation.

In the polymer industry the name is sometimes shortened to PE in a manner similar to that by which other polymers like polypropylene and polystyrene are shortened to PP and PS respectively. In the United Kingdom the polymer is commonly called polythene, although this is not recognised scientifically.

The ethene molecule (known almost universally by its common name ethylene) C2H4 is CH2=CH2, Two CH2 groups connected by a double bond, thus:

Polyethylene is created through polymerization of ethene. It can be produced through radical polymerization, anionic addition polymerization, ion coordination polymerization or cationic addition polymerization. This is because ethene does not have any substituent groups that influence the stability of the propagation head of the polymer. Each of these methods results in a different type of polyethylene.

 

Note:   The above text is excerpted from the Wikipedia article Biodegradable polythene film, which has been released under the GNU Free Documentation License.