Circular Economy: Use of Fruit Waste to Obtain Bioplastics

The inappropriate and limited management of organic waste causes it to be disposed of in streets or landfills, negatively impacting the various ecosystems due to leachate, the appearance of vectors, and the emission of greenhouse gases. Taking advantage of this waste under the concept of circular economy is a viable alternative, one way to do it is by transforming it into compost for agricultural activity. This research seeks to propose a new use of organic waste with favorable characteristics to obtain biomaterials. The elaboration of bioplastic from pectin extracted from the peels of citrus fruits and apples was tested. Through aqueous extraction, the pectin was obtained to later transform it into a bioplastic with the addition of citric acid, glycerol, carboxymethylcellulose, and water. They were experimented with using three doses, being the best dose to produce the bioplastic with the best properties when using 1 % citric acid, 7 % glycerol, 0.39 % carboxymethylcellulose and 2 % pectin, a bioplastic that presented elongation and tensile values of 7.3575. N/ cm2 and 62.22 %, percentage of water absorption of 94.26 %, 100 % biodegradability (in the soil) in 21 days, as well as 100 % degradation in water in 14 days and 28.39 % degradation in the open air in 28 days. Obtaining these biomaterials is a way to take advantage of citrus waste and other fruits with environmental sustainability advantages and within the concept of circular economy, which would avoid the use of plastics based on polluting chemical products.