Wast-Plas: an innovation of bioplastic from paper waste & fruit waste for various applications

Biodegradable waste such as paper waste (newspaper, magazine, egg trays, empty tissue roll, and cardboard) and fruit waste (fruit rind & peel) abundantly found in our landfill. Paper industry contributes to deforestation and environmental pollution due to paper processing. Food industries also contribute to serious source of pollution that come from non-utilized part of fruit (peel or rind). Egg tray (ET) is used to keep the eggs that can be found abundantly at supermarkets, grocery stores and food stalls. Empty tissue roll (ETR) is a type of material that can be found inside of the tissue roll. Jackfruit rind (JR) is outer part of jackfruit that normally disposed as fruit waste. Cellulose acetate (CA) is a valuable ester considering its biodegradability, renewable source, low cost, nontoxicity and very poor flammability property. CA can be extracted and produced by the reaction of cellulose with acetic acid and an excess of acetic acid anhydride in the presence of different types of catalyst such as iodine and sulphuric. This reaction is called acetylation reaction. Acetylation reaction modified the structure of cellulose by substituting -OH group in cellulose with acetyl group. Hence, the hydrophilicity of the cellulose can be reduced and the hydrophobicity properties of the cellulose can be improved. By turning this non-utilized waste (paper waste and fruit waste) to a valuable one (Cellulose Acetate), the environmental pollution can be controlled and resulted more sustainable earth. Wast-Plas films is a bioplastic which derived from CA (ET, ETR and JR) and gelatine. Wast-Plas films is an innovation of the current plastic in market that exhibited improve hydrophobicity, low solubility and low moisture uptake. Wast-Plas film has a potential to be applied as packaging (seedlings bag) and kid toys (stress ball & squishy toys).