Polylactic acid (PLA) polymer is one of the most widely used biobased materials. However, in certain applications, including injection-molded thin-walled packaging, PLA has some shortcomings, such as deficient heat-deflection temperature, long/slow crystallization time, and brittleness, which have limited its application in injection-molding processes. Our literature review identified (1) previous work performed with PLA, (2) the best results obtained from the research, and (3) potential gaps in the work performed for material improvement. Scientific and trade-journal literature showed that as with typical polymer-processing operations, improvements in final part quality can result from pre-processing, processing, or post-processing actions. In this study, pre-processing actions undertaken to improve final part properties included analysis of how filler size affects crystallization rate and final crystalline content, and analysis of the effect of clarifiers on the final product. The effect of the condition of as-received material was also investigated. In addition to processing work with PLA, the research team worked to develop an in-house biodegradation/composting method to qualitatively analyze how changes in material properties affect biodegradation time.