UNAIR NEWS – In the hand of chemistry students of Faculty of Science and Technology (FST) 51¶¯Âþ, the waste of avocado seeds and shrimp shell is innovated into bioplastics as environmentally friendly plastic substitutes.
Five students who synthesized eco-friendly bioplastics are Nurlailiatul Machmudah, Fitria Pebriani, Adi Rachmadji, Tri Susanti, and Dimas Noor Asyari.
Nurlailiatul Machmudah, leader of the research team explained that they chose to make this innovation because of the excessive use of plastic bags.Environment Protection Body,an environmental agency in the United States noted, every year around 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide.
“This is a threat to the environment, because plastic is a material that organisms difficult to destroy.To be able to melt and decompose in the soil, plastic waste takes between 200 to 1,000 years, ” he said.
Then, several kinds ofbiodegradableplastics,such aspolyhydroxy alkanoateÌý(±Ê±á´¡),Ìýpoly e-caprolactoneÌý(±Ê°ä³¢),Ìýpoly butylene succinate(PBS) andlactic acid poly(PLA) have been found.But most of biodegradableplastic raw materialstill usesnon-renewable resourcesand is not energy efficient.
The results of this interesting research is then written as a proposal of Exacta Research Student Creativity Program (PKM-PE).After the selection of Dikti, the proposal “Bioplastik Mbah Kilat (Shrimp Shell And Avocado Seed Waste)” was qualified to get research fund in 2016-2017 Kemenristekdikti PKM.
Nurlailiatul added that this study emphasizes on the use of unused waste, such as avocado seed waste and shrimp shell waste to be made as environmentally friendly bioplastics and safe to use.This synthetic bioplastics is named “Mbah Kilat œ(Shrimp Shell And Avocado Seed Waste).
The bioplastics is made of shrimp shell chitosan and starch of avocado seed. It contains suitable component of plastics so it is easier to be degraded by organisms.
In shrimp shell there is kitin which can be transformed into chitosan which strengthens the plastic polymer character.To add to the plastic characteristics, the plasticizer orsorbitol plasticizer ¾±²õÌý²¹»å»å±ð»åÌý.
“With this ‘Mbah Kilat’ bioplastics we hope it becomes an alternative of commercial plastic material that are safe to use, easy to decompose, and can be used as a solution to optimize the utilization of waste,” said Nurlaili.(*)
Editor: Bambang Bes
