Unlocking the Potential of Tropical Fruit Waste to Develop a Biobased Material: An Environment-Friendly Approach

Abstract

For the sustainable fashion manifesto, biobased material is a novel creation that is made from leftovers and growing biological cells. As the need to develop sustainable biomaterials is on the rise many researchers have focused their studies on microbes and other biological organisms such as plants to offer cleaner, greener processes and entirely new products. The majority of leather items are produced from the skins of cows and calves, that are killed for their flesh. Bio-based materials with Tropical fruit waste were developed using Bacterial Cellulose (Gluconacetobacter) and leftover peels and rinds of mango, papaya and jackfruit. For the production of Bacterial Cellulose (BC), the use of agricultural leftovers can be a cheap and sustainable method. The basic physical tests show that matrices with BC have higher physical and abrasion resistance compared to the other samples. The research indicates that the presence of BC in the matrix increases the biobased material's strength and elongation twofold. The manufacturing processes are using up the natural resource and cause negative environmental effects, this can be reduced by using waste as raw materials. This study has opened new ways of creating biomaterials without using up resources and meeting consumers' sustainability concerns.