Recently, environmental problems
caused by petroleum-based plastics have been increasing. Therefore, researchers
have begun to investigate new materials that may be alternatives to plastics.
Bioplastics are considered as green materials alternatives to plastics and they
are produced from renewable resources such as corn and potatoes, or
microorganisms under certain conditions. In addition, most researchers are
concerned with renewable resources for non-food using, such as bioplastic production.
For this reason, researchers have been focusing on the utilization of the wastes
as bioplastic products. In this study, the bioplastic was produced from potato peel
as the food industry waste. Also, some properties of the produced bioplastic
such as water absorption capacity and biodegradability were analyzed.
Furthermore, water absorption capacity and biodegradability of a commercial
bioplastic were also determined in order for the comparison with the one produced
from potato peel waste in different conditions. It was found that the produced
potato peel bioplastic (PPB) had higher water absorption capacity than
commercial bioplastic (CB). Therefore, PPB may not be used in the food service
industry but can be used as packing material. Biodegradability tests showed
that PPB biodegraded at about 71% in moist soil and 100% in vermicompost within
four weeks. On the other hand, it was determined that CB was not degraded in the
soil or in the compost in four weeks. Therefore, as a food industry waste,
potato peel can be used in biodegradable bioplastic production. In this way,
petroleum-based plastic pollution may be decreased both in Turkey and the
world.
Primary Language | English |
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Journal Section | Research Articles |
Authors | |
Publication Date | August 15, 2019 |
Submission Date | May 3, 2018 |
Acceptance Date | April 18, 2019 |
Published in Issue | Year 2019 |