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Upcycling Waste Fruit Protective Net Foam Into Polyethylene Films for Sustainable Triboelectric Energy Harvesting
Summary
Scientists found a clever way to turn the foam netting that protects fruit (like the mesh sleeves around apples) into a device that generates electricity from simple motions like tapping or clapping. This matters because it tackles two problems at once: reducing plastic waste that would otherwise pollute landfills and break down into microplastics, while creating a cheap, sustainable way to power small electronics like LED lights. Less discarded plastic foam means fewer microplastics potentially entering our food, water, and bodies over time.
ABSTRACT The rapid increase in plastic packaging waste has become a serious environmental issue, causing ecological pollution and potential health hazards. Therefore, converting waste materials into sustainable energy resources has become an important strategy for promoting green energy. In recent years, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) technology has emerged as a promising approach for harvesting energy from waste materials to enable clean and sustainable energy generation. In this work, we report an easy and sustainable transformation of waste fruit protective net foam (FPNF) into a valuable triboelectric material for mechanical energy harvesting. Flexible polyethylene (PE) film was obtained from waste FPNF by a simple thermal‐solvent casting procedure and used as the tribo‐positive material in the TENG, with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) film as the tribo‐negative material. The optimal PE‐PTFE TENG yielded an output voltage of 420 V, current of 40 µA, and a maximum power density of 5.48 W/m 2 . The proposed TENG could momentarily power 360 LEDs and five LED lamps with each hand‐tapping motion. The present results show the potential of waste FPNF as a low‐cost, eco‐friendly, and sustainable triboelectric material for energy‐harvesting applications. This study offers a practical route for plastic waste valorization while supporting sustainable energy generation.