Abstract: Biodegradable plastics have a promising application as an alternative to traditional petroleum-based plastics. Since biodegradable plastics were often used as food packaging materials, they tend to enter the system of anaerobic digestion along with the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes, which posed a challenge to organic waste management. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) and starch-based plastics degraded faster under anaerobic conditions among wide variety of biodegradable plastics. The remaining types of biodegradable plastics were difficult to be effectively degraded under the biogas plants’ typical hydrophilic residence time (15~30 days). In addition to the physicochemical properties of the plastic, external factors such as temperature, pH and microorganisms also had important effects on the anaerobic degradation rate of plastics. The common biodegradable plastic types and their applications, the anaerobic degradability and the factors influencing the biodegradability were reviewed. Also the technologies represented by the pre-treatment for enhancing the anaerobic biodegradability were summarized. Finally，the research direction on the anaerobic degradation of biodegradable plastics was prospected.

Key words: biodegradable plastics, anaerobic digestion, biodegradability, pre-treatment, waste management