Preparation of a bio plastic from raw banana peels using sodium bi carbonate as a preservative.

Abstract

Plastic industry is considered one of the most important industries because plastic is an important factor in the making of many useful products such as sheets, tubes, rods, slabs, building blocks and domestic products. Plastic offers a variety of benefits, in a variety of shapes, such as sheets, panels, film, which can all be flexible as the application requires. Plastic is a price competitive with other materials that offer similar advantages in industrial applications, which is why it is used in a number of applications. It is light weight, strong, visually aesthetic, flexible size and shape, and cheaper price. However, use of too many plastics results in massive harmful effects. It takes longer time to degrade which is estimated about 500 years to degrade and will become toxic after decomposed. Plastic pollution can unfavourably affect lands, waterways and oceans. Humans are also affected by plastic pollution, such as through the disruption of the thyroid hormone axis or hormone levels. Thus, the biodegradable plastic becomes a promising solution to solve all these problems. Making bioplastic from banana peels instead of the traditional petroleum-based plastic is believed to be a successful solution to increase the efficiency of plastic industry. The project research work aimed at preparation of bio plastic sheet using raw banana peels. The banana peels were amalgamated with glycerol as plasticizer and sodium bicarbonate as an antimicrobial. This research work was completed in four steps, first step will be to prepare the banana peels, the second step will be the production of starch, thirdly will be the production of the bio-plastic by heating at temperatures above 300°C and lastly testing the performance of the bio-bag. Its properties like tensile strength and water absorption will be performed in this research work.