Screening and Evaluation of Agrowaste Containing Natural Polymer as a Solid Base for Biodegradable Plate

Single-use plastic waste disposal is a global problem affecting our planet. The current study was aimed to evaluate agriculture dry wastes such as banana leaves, banana sheet and coconut leaf to produce biodegradable plates. Tensile strength, porosity, permeability, and biodegradability of the materials were evaluated for optimizing the suitable materials. The raw materials were powdered and cooked with low-cost natural polymeric material to cast biodegradable plates. The parameters were optimized using Taguchi design to enhance the tensile strength, which was found to be 3 mL of water, 4.0% of binder treated for 20 s in microwave. Highest tensile strength of 0.511 MPa was achieved through the optimization process. Water repelling capacity of the plates were enhanced by coating with different agro waste materials such as bees wax, starch solution, camel foot leaf and banana leaf. The results of this study encourage the utilization of agro-waste for producing biodegradable food plates.