Rather than being produced from oil or natural gas, biobased plastics are generated from plant resources. One may believe that this kind of plastic must biodegrade because it is derived from plants. Nonetheless, biobased plastics can be engineered to have the same structural integrity as petroleum-based polymers, and if this is the case, they will have an equivalent environmental shelf life. Biobased plastics can be designed to be compostable or biodegradable, just like petroleum-based plastics.