Application of Nata de Coco and Shrimp Skin Waste as a Material for Production Biodegradable Plastic – Mini Review

Abstract

Abstract Environmental pollution is a problem that has not been resolved until now in Indonesia. Especially in the problem of plastic waste which continues to increase at 64 million tons per year. One of the biggest contributors to plastic waste in the community is conventional plastic which is difficult to degrade, resulting in the accumulation of waste. One alternative to overcome this problem is to use biodegradable plastic made from environmentally friendly materials. Biodegradable plastic products utilize nata de coco waste which contains about 42.57% cellulose and shrimp shells with a chitin content of 15-20%. The process of converting cellulose and chitosan into biodegradable plastic requires several processing steps. Chitosan was mixed with distilled water for dissolution and acetic acid (1:99) % by volume was added. Heating and stirring were carried out. Then cellulose and glycerol were mixed and heated using the phase inversion method to produce biodegradable plastic. The product was evaluated through an elongation test, tensile strength test, uji biodegradable, water resistance test, mechanical test, and degradation test to determine the product characteristics. This study aims to help strategies to process nata de coco and shrimp shell waste into biodegradable plastics with an efficient process so that it can help overcome the problem of plastic waste.