Development of a biodegradable transparent packing material

Abstract

increasing amounts of packaging waste are discarded into municipal waste streams each year.A considerable amount of research has been devoted to the production of biodegradable polymer films derived from natural sources to reduce synthetic polymer waste. Therefore,development of bio-polymer films from protein, polysaccharides and lipid material are of high interest of the most of scientists. This research study was carried out to produce a bio-film using AIstonia (Hawari Nuga) tree leaves. Leaves were fermented in an inoculating water tank for few days to separate the film. Films were separated manuaily to remove the debris of plant tissues.Films were bleached with three different techniques. These films were pasted together by gelatin with different layers (2,3,4) to be used for the tests of mechanical properties. The effect of leaf maturity was tested on separating the film and its strength. The microorganisms responsible for the anaerobic digestion of leaf material were also investigated. Finally physical properties of the films were evaluated using standard test method (ASTM D-882-91).

Bio-films produced were flexible, transparent and had a sight yellow colour. Fully matured leaf stage was the best stage to separate the film. The isolated microorganisms were mainly decomposing fungi. With the increase in the number of layers, the ultimate tensile strength increased gradually while the transparency decreased gradually. Tensile strength and percentage elongation values of cutin films reveal that they are compatible with other bio-polymer films like com zein protein and modified Soya protein isolate films developed by other scientists. However the leaf cutin film developed has low impact strength than those of synthetic polymer films like high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE).Therefore, these films can be used in such applications where impact is not very important.