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The problem of inorganic plastic packaging waste has increaseh, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Inorganic plastic packaging tends to be in demand because it is flexible, strong and light. However, excessive use creates serious environmental problems. To overcome the excessive use of plastic packaging, biodegradable trays were developed as an alternative to inorganic plastic packaging. Biodegradable tray is an environmentally friendly packaging material made from starch. Starch is an ideal base material because it is a natural polymer source, renewable and capable of being degraded naturally. This study aims to determine the effect of the type of starch and the addition of natural fiber filler on the characteristics of the resulting biodegradable tray. Bagasse fiber is used as a filler to improve the mechanical properties of the biodegradable tray. The biodegradable tray was made by baking at a temperature of 125 oC for three hours using sago starch and corn starch. Bagasse fiber was added with concentrations of 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20%. The biodegradable tray analysis carried out were water absorption, density decomposition and tensile strength tests. The best of sago starch based biodegradable tray was obtained at 10% fiber concentration with a tensile strength value of 3.1086 MPa, water absorption capacity of 4.69%, biodegradability of 50.57% and density of 1.1044 gram/cm3. The best results of corn starch-based biodegradable trays were obtained at a fiber concentration of 15% with a tensile strength value of 2.9812 MPa, water absorption capacity of 3.61%, biodegradability of 50.57% and density of 0.9114 gram/cm3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental issues are the most critical and urgent factor for the increasing use of biopolymers in broader applications. Research on chitosan as a bioplastic material opens vast opportunities to improve its weak mechanical properties. These include blending with biopolymer/synthetic polymers as a matrix or incorporating with nanofillers. The use of organic solvents in dissolving chitosan is also interesting for further research. In this study, we synthesized a chitosan/PVA-based biofilm composite in five different ratios (100/0, 80/20, 60/40, 40/60, 0/100) in acetic acid and citric acid with the addition of 10% weight glycerol to get the optimum composition of mechanical properties. This optimum film would be conducted with SiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) and Cellulose Nano Crystals (CNCs) to evaluate the reinforcement effects. Various properties, including surface morphology, functional, mechanical properties, and thermal behavior, were characterized. The experimental result showed that the tensile strength of the composite film in acetic acid was higher than in citric acid. With the addition of 2.5% w/w of SiO2 NPs, the tensile strength of the composite film got its maximum value, 21.01 MPa, and the maximum of 25.77 MPa with 10% w/w of CNCs, which was 115,7% higher than with of the pure chitosan/PVA film in the ratio of 80/20 which was the optimum. The effect of adding CNC and SiO2 NPS has the opposite effect. The addition of filler CNCs will improve mechanical properties, while SiO2 NPs tend to decrease mechanical properties. All film characterizations demonstrated that the physicochemical interaction between CNCs and chitosan/PVA molecules improved their mechanical and thermal properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The biomaterial is a substance which is designed to interact with the living system without giving any side-effect. Petrochemical plastics are in use for more than a century. Plastics have found use in different forms in various industries like food, cosmetics, textiles, medical sciences, engineering, and agriculture. Synthetic plastics take millions of years to degrade hence economies have switched to the production of biodegradable plastics. Present methods of synthesizing biomaterials use biological methods like microbial fermentations, which makes biomaterial synthesis and production, cost-effective and eco-friendly. The aim of this research article is to analyse the present state of research in large-scale biomaterial production and its safety for mankind and the environment. This review provides insight into the literature concerning the use of various bacteria-derived polymers and their use in the medical, healthcare, and food industry. This review will also consider the unique abilities of bacteria in using industrial waste and by-products of industries as substrate and their utilization as carbon and nitrogen source. The review will list the literature mentioning the barriers in present research based on microbial production of biomaterials and future directions to improve the production of biomaterials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural polymers are expected to be used as raw materials for biodegradable plastics production to replace synthetic plastics, which are known as not eco-friendly due to their difficulty to degrade microorganisms. Among modified cellulose derivatives, cellulose acetate can be used as raw material for biodegradable plastics. Cellulose can be obtained from lignocellulose material such as fiber waste of sugar palm (Arenga pinnata) trunk. This research aims to produce cellulose acetate with the degree of substitution value that meets a standard plastic raw material. Cellulose acetate was prepared through several processes such as extraction, delignification, bleaching, and acetylation. The experimental factor was a variation of the reaction time of delignification (15, 30, and 60 min) followed by acetylation (30, 60, 120, 240, and 360 min). The delignification process was carried out under pressurized conditions by using NaOH 10%, at 50 °C for 60 minutes, producing pulp with 0.24% of lignin, 10.87% of hemicellulose, and 88.49% of cellulose. The bleaching was done by using 10% hydrogen peroxide at pH 9 with a reaction temperature of 70 °C for 5 hours, yielding white pulp containing lignin was 0.01%, hemicellulose of 9.95%, and cellulose content of 90.01%. The cellulose acetate was obtained through the acetylation process by using acetic anhydride, and iodine as a catalyst for 30 minutes of generated cellulose acetate with a degree of substitution of 1.60+0.005. Cellulose acetate product has met the requirements as a biodegradable plastic raw material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plastics that are renewable and biodegradable have become increasingly popular in the quest for greener and more sustainable food packages. These so-called bioplastics are designed to replace traditional petrochemical polymers with renewable natural resources. To be a viable alternative to these oil-based resources the material must be successfully integrated into existing mass-manufacturing processes that transform material sheets into three-dimensional products. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of process parameters, particularly moulding temperatures, on the 3D-formability of bioplastics during thermoforming. A numerical/visual comparison was conducted between thermoformed tray packages and reference packages made of petrochemical polymers focusing primarily on product geometry and stiffness. Three bioplastic materials were selected based on their availability and suitability for the process: Polylactic Acid (PLA) and Cellulose Acetate Propionate (CAP). The sample materials were formed to specimen trays using a custom-designed sheet-forming chamber on a commercial Form-Fill-Seal (FFS) thermoforming line. Material changes necessitated separate optimizations of the process parameters for each material. It was found that the material properties of bioplastics set certain limits to the formed geometric shapes, but these limits can be addressed during the packaging design phase, making bioplastics a viable material for environmentally friendly yet economically feasible packages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]