Accelerated use of synthetic plastic materials in packaging has led to serious ecological problems. Biodegradable polymers are material that could be converted to natural compounds such as water, carbon di-oxide, methane and other biological components by means of microorganisms like algae, fungi, bacteria. In this article a comparative study of degradations of hibiscus mucilage and potato starch blends with LDPE has been done. Samples with different concentrations of hibiscus mucilage and potato starch (as 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25%) were prepared. Glycerol was used as a plasticizer and Fe2SO4 was used as a pro-oxidant. The biodegradation of blends of hibiscus mucilage and Low Density polyethylene (LDPE) was compared with the biodegradation of blends of potato starch and LDPE with the same levels of concentrations. The comparative evaluation of biodegradation in soil has been studied in terms of loss of mass, density, tensile strength and elongation as well as in terms of crystallinity. The loss of mass of hibiscus mucilage and LDPE blend was found 25.8 % after six months of soil burial, where as the blend of potato starch with LDPE was found 21.42 %. Tensile strength of mucilage blend was decreased by 12.1 %, whereas of starch blend was decreased by 11.29% and elongation is reduced by 54.1 % and 28.17 % respectively after six months of soil burial. The density is decreased by 14.3 % and 8.67 % for mucilage and starch blends respectively after six months of soil burial. Further the crystallinity is deviated by % and % for mucilage and starch blends respectively. It has been found that more degradation occurred with mucilage blends rather than potato starch blends.
