Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7), Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG 12)
Feasibility of producing biodegradable disposable paper cups from lignocellulosis biomass with beeswax coating Jeetah Pratima 1 * and Buxoo Swabiiha 1, 2 Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Mauritius, Réduit, Mauritius *corresponding author:*p.jeetah@uom.ac.mu, Tel: +230 4037891, Fax: +230 4647144 Paper cups are commercially made from virgin wood pulp and coated with polyethylene as waterproof material, which is a non-biodegradable petrochemical product. However, using wood for paper cup making leads to massive deforestation, while the polyethylene coating retards the biodegradation of paper cups and reduces their recyclability potential when contaminated with drinks. This leads to a higher amount of paper cups reaching the landfill as waste. Meanwhile, non-wood fibres that can be potential feedstocks for paper cup production are being thrown away. As such, interests are now diverted to moulded pulp products from non-wood materials with biobased waterproof coating as a potential solution. While past studies have been carried out to form eco-friendly disposable tableware using non-wood biomass, there is no present groundwork so far where fruit peels waste composited with Mauritian hemp (Furcraea foetida) has been used for such purpose, which is novel to this research work. This study therefore assesses whether the production of 100% biodegradable disposable paper cups with acceptable strength properties using pineapple (Ananas comosus) peels, orange (Citrus sinensis) peels and Mauritian hemp as feedstock is feasible. Soda pulping followed by vacuum molding was done to produce hemp: pineapple peels and hemp: orange peels composite paper cups in different ratios. The cups were tested using relevant standards in terms of appearance and structure, burst strength, tensile strength, weight load, water leakage and biodegradability to find the optimum cup composition by comparing with a suitable control. The thickness of all moulded cups ranged between 1 to 2 mm. All cups produced had normal colour with no stains, discolorations or dirt/ grease, a stable base and smooth, tidy and clean edge. The 40:60 hemp–pineapple peels composite cup had characteristics closest to the control, with no cracks and variation rate of weight load, average thickness of 1.42 mm and burst and tensile indexes of 0.25 kPa m2 /g and 3.30 Nm/g, respectively. Beeswax coating thickness of 0.70 mm on the optimum cup was adequate to retain cold water for 30 min (minimum) without any leakage. It is to be noted that the cup also biodegraded completely in both active soil and damp sand environments within 5 and 6 weeks, respectively. Results therefore reveal that fiber extraction from fruit peel wastes and hemp leaves to produce eco-friendly, biodegradable disposable paper cups is viable.
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© The Author(s), 2023
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