Bio-Degradable food packaging material can help save the environment alternative to plastic. Did you know that cucumber peels are actually useful? Here comes a team of Indian researchers with a new solution with those peels which goes into the trash.
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) researchers in Kharagpur designs eco-friendly biodegradable packaging material by the waste of cucumber peels.
Researchers Discovery
As per the researchers, the cucumber peels that we usually throw out has a good amount of cellulose nanocrystals and it can be turned into making food packaging material which has a low oxygen level which can be converted into bio-degradable food packaging material.
Even though the usage of plastic is banned, they are still being used in food packaging.
Assistant Professor at IIT Kharagpur, Jayeeta Mitra in an interview with HT stated, in our country cucumber is generally used in salads, cooked vegetables and many other. The majority of peels can be collected as the vegetable is used cooking industry and households.
Bio-Degradable Food Packaging Material
The peel is bio-waste which contains cellulose. The cucumbers form about 12 per cent extra wastes.
The researchers’ team extracted celluloses, hemicellulose, pectin to design the bio-material.
Eco-Friendly Properties
The cucumber peels consist of modifiable properties which will help maintain biodegradability of the material. This biodegradable packaging material will not harm health and the environment.
A research scholar at the institute, Sai Prasanna said, “this non-toxic, the biodegradable and biocompatible product has no adverse effects on health and environment and hence could have a huge market potential by rendering management of organic waste with high cellulose content profitable.”
This eco-friendly material that is made of organic waste and is processed with high cellulose.
This eco-friendly material that is made of organic waste and is processed with high cellulose can be used in the food packaging and beverage industries. It can also be used in in the fields like the manufacturing paper and many other.
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