Bioplastic from Agricultural Byproducts as Potential Replacement for Synthetic Plastic

Synthetic plastic-based pollution is one of the threatening issues for our environment. Our oceans are filled with 165 million tons of plastic waste, and over 9 million tons enter the ocean annually. It will take about 500 years to degrade these wastes, and the environment will be further polluted with hazardous chemicals during degradation. There is an urgent need to replace this non-degradable plastic with environmentally friendly biodegradable plastic. In this study, we have prepared bioplastic films from wheat bran, sugar beet pulps, and chickpeas using glycerol as plasticizers. The hot mold press converted our prepared films into promising bioplastic sheets. We are in the process of analyzing the physical and mechanical properties of these films. The bioplastic from the agricultural byproducts seems to be a suitable alternative to replace the existing synthetic plastic.