Utilization of Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) Peel Waste and Blood Clam Shell Waste (Anadara granosa) as Raw Materials for Glycerol-Plasticized Degradable Bioplastic Production

Abstract

Nowadays, the world needs solutions to manage the ever-growing plastic waste problem. Plastics cannot decay easily in natural environment for example, PET took about 23 to 48 years to decay naturally in the environment. Therefore, it is urgently needed to find an alternative to these types of plastics, namely degradable plastics. One type of degradable plastic, called starch-based bioplastic can be made using starchy materials from Breadfruit peel. This, is in combination with Blood Clam shell – derived chitin nanowhiskers as reinforcer and glycerol as plasticizer. In this research, bioplastic is synthesized using starch extracted from Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) peel waste, reinforcing agent chitin nanowhisker (CNW) made from Blood Clam (Anadara granosa) shell waste, and glycerol as plasticizer. Furthermore, the plastic was tested according to general standard plastic tests including Tensile Strength, Water Uptake and Soil Burial test. Soil burial test results showed that in the period of less than 15 days, the bioplastic was completely decomposed. Water uptake test results showed that the bioplastic made from breadfruit peel starch and Blood Cam-derived CNW achieved water uptake numbers as high as 94,077 %, Tensile strength test showed that the bioplastic made from breadfruit waste starch and Blood clam-derived CNW of 0.0994 MPa was almost two times stronger than bioplastic made without the addition CNW of 0.0587 MPa and was also stronger than conventional plastics.