Making paper from groundnut shells.

Abstract

The pollution of our environment is as a result of trying to hasten waste by burning, the high rate of deforestation which is the second largest human-caused source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, in addition to its other diverse effects like soil erosion and the blockage of the ground surface from aeration by polythene bags because of failure to decompose in to the environment The purpose of this study is to produce bio-degradable polished paper of different samples from groundnut shells, backcloth and waste paper which can be used in place of non-bio-degradable polythene bags so as to eliminate the pollution of the environment with polythene bag chemicals, to test the selected properties like GSM, bulk density, thickness and moisture absorbency, to compare the properties and determine which is suitable for what kind of end use. The results showed that GIB had longer fibres compared to G and GIW fibres because of the high moisture content in the blended fibres which facilitates easy fibre extraction The basis weight for the 100% groundnut shells sample paper is lower than that of GIW and GIB. However, the addition of either waste paper or backcloth increases the basis weight at different rates with GIB giving the highest basis weight compared to waste paper. The bulk decreases with addition of waste paper. However, when backcloth is added, the bulk: slightly increases. With the addition of waste paper, the Cobb value reduces compared to that of groundnut shells alone. However, with the blend of backcloth, the rate at which it takes up the water is high.