(R.Square):The outstanding task in the earth that biodegradable packaging from waste banana plants.

Waste banana tree stalks can be turned into biodegradable and recyclable shopping bags.

Two researchers at UNSW Sydney is exploring a way to convert banana garden waste into packaging material that is biodegradable and recyclable.

Associate Professor Jayashree Arcot, Professor Martina Stenzel, and research student Kehao Huang, working on recyclable bags that can also be composted, made from banana waste.

Jayshree Arcot, an associate professor at the UNSW College of Chemical Engineering, and Martina Stenzel, a professor at the UNSW College of Chemistry, were looking for ways to turn agricultural waste into something that could boost the value of the chemical industry. It was a by-product while solving potential problems for others.

According to Associate Professor Arcot, the banana industry produces large quantities of organic waste, using only 12 percent of the plant (fruit), and the rest is discarded after harvest.

“The thing that makes banana growers business particularly wasteful compared to other fruit crops is that the plant dies after each harvest,” said Associate Professor Arcot.

“We were particularly interested in pseudostems, mainly layered fleshy stems of plants that are cut after each harvest and in most cases disposed of in the ground.

"Some of it is used for textiles, some as compost, but other than that, it's a huge waste."

Associate Professor Arcot and Professor Stenzel were surprised that pseudostems are a valuable source of cellulose, an important structural component of plant cell walls that can be used in packaging, paper products, textiles, and even wound healing applications such as wound and drug administration.

POTENTIAL: A sample of the finished product bioplastic film made from banana pseudostem material

Using a reliable supply of pseudostem ingredients from bananas grown in the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, the pair worked on extracting cellulose to test its suitability as an alternative to packaging. "The pseudostem is 90pc water, so the solid the material ends up reducing down to about 10pc," Associate Professor Arcot said.

"We take the pseudostem to the laboratory, cut it into pieces, dry it in a dry oven at a very low temperature, and then grind it one by one into a very fine powder."

Professor Stenzel said they took the powder and washed it off with a very light chemical treatment.

"This isolates what we call nano-cellulose which is a material of high value with a whole range of applications," she said.

"One of those applications that intrigued us enormously was the packaging, especially single-use food packaging was such a huge amount ends up in a landfill."

At the point when handled, the material has a consistency like baking paper.

Associate Professor Arcot said relying upon the planned thickness, the material could be utilized in various arrangements in food packaging.

"There are a few choices now, we could make a shopping pack, for instance," she said.

"Or then again relying upon how we pour the material and how thick we make it; we could make the plate that you see for meat and natural product.

"Besides obviously, rather than being froth, it is a material that is totally non-harmful, biodegradable, and recyclable."

The researchers have confirmed in tests the material breaks down organically after putting "films" of the cellulose material in the soil for six months.

The results showed that the cellulose sheets were on the way to disintegration in the soil samples.

"This material is also recyclable. One of our Ph.D. students has proven that we can recycle these three times without any change in the property," said Associate Professor Arcot.

Food tests have shown that it does not present a risk of contamination.

Samples, to see whether there was any leaching into the cells," Professor Stenzel said.

STAGES: Showing the various stages of production: dried pseudostem, its powder form, and a jar of alkaline solution that extracts nanocellulose

"We didn't see any of that. I also tested it on mammalian cells, cancer cells, T-cells and it's all non-toxic to them.

Associate Professor Arcot said that in addition to the quality of cellulose materials, what makes bananas so attractive is that they are an annual plant.

While banana pseudostem can be a real alternative to plastic bags and food packaging, researchers say it would be wise for the banana industry to start a powdered pseudostem process that they can sell to packaging suppliers.

Associate Professor Arcot said he thought packaging firms would be more interested in testing this ingredient if they knew the ingredients were available.

 

 AUTHOR-M.ZAMAN(RASEL).