Bioplastics with a wide range of mechanical properties
were directly obtained from industrially processed edible vegetable and
cereal wastes. As model systems, we present bioplastics synthesized from
wastes of parsley and spinach stems, rice hulls, and cocoa pod husks by
digesting in trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), casting, and evaporation. In this
way, amorphous cellulose-based plastics are formed. Moreover, many
other natural elements present in these plants are carried over into the
bioplastics rendering them with many exceptional thermo-physical
properties. Here, we show that, due to their broad compatibility with
cellulose, amorphous cellulose can be naturally plasticized with these
bioplastics by simply mixing during processing. Comparison of their
mechanical properties with that of various petroleum based synthetic
polymers indicates that these bioplastics have equivalent mechanical
properties to the nondegrading ones. This opens up possibilities for replacing some of the nondegrading polymers with the
present bioplastics obtained from agro-waste.