Design and elaboration of biodegradable utensils from the fiber of the banana stem (Musa paradisiaca) as an alternative of use to mitigate environmental impacts caused by the plastic

Abstract

Due to environmental requirements, today we choose to find new sources of renewable resources, to apply them in various areas, therefore, we have seen the need to produce biodegradable utensils, being an effective alternative to mitigate the use of conventional equipment whose characteristics have a very high degradation time.

The research took place in the Industrial Processes laboratory of the Faculty of Science of the Polytechnic School of Chimborazo, the main raw material that was used was obtained from the banana stem to which purification and bleaching was done with NaOH at 30 %, NaClO and water that allowed the hardening of the fibers obtained, the average initial weight of the raw material without drying (0.1454 Kg) was considered, the organic fibers were distributed in four drying trays which were subjected to the drying equipment of trays at a temperature of 50 ^oC for 7 hours once the fiber moisture was extracted, an average weight of the dry raw material of (0.04028 Kg) was obtained, eliminating 77.99% of moisture and then going to the process spraying in a ball mill turning the previously dried organic fibers into powder, then with the powder obtained the utensils were made by moistening the dry fibers to shape them. The fibers obtained achieved excellent mechanical strength, then an analysis was performed by infrared IR spectroscopy, presenting characteristics similar to those of a synthetic plastic and differentiating it by its easy degradation. The processing of the raw material for the elaboration of utensils does not cause environmental contamination becoming biodegradable waste after its use.