Production of Bioplastics from Banana Peels

There is an ever-increasing interest in using agricultural residue researchers to produce functional materials. Banana peels have attracted the attention of researchers due to their massive production rate. A possible replacement for the common non-biodegradable plastics is bioplastics synthesized from agro residues. One of the abundantly available agro wastes is banana peels, a rich starch source. Replacing conventional petroleum-based plastics with these bioplastics would result in a vastly improved efficacy of the plastic industry. Further, the limited future availability of petroleum due to the rapidly decreasing reserves of crude oil and the global concerns on environmental and waste management-friendly replacements for petroleum-derived plastics have sparked greater interest towards its replacement with bioplastics. Utilizing a renewable and biodegradable agro-residue-based natural resource with a significant production rate for synthesizing these bioplastics is the ground-breaking innovation to address environmental problems and provide more affordable bioplastics-based materials for commercial use. This study illustrates a novel and efficient method for synthesizing bioplastics from agricultural waste, primarily banana peels. The properties of the synthesized bioplastics from banana peels have been enhanced by employing different additives (fillers) like rice husk ash and talcum powder. The results of the banana peel-based bioplastics synthesized with and without filler have also been compared to explore the effect of additive filler. The study reveals that banana peels can effectively synthesize bioplastics as an alternative to conventional plastics, and the type and amount of filler employed affects the material's strength and thermal behaviour.