Preliminary Investigation of Bioplastics from Durian Seed Starch Recovery Using PEG 400 for Reducing Marine Debris

Plastic is a source of pollution both on land and sea that can disrupt balance of the ecosystem. The characteristic of plastic as a material is difficult to decompose causing problems for environment. Various research needed to produce bioplastics that easily biodegradable in about 60 days. Biodegradable plastics are made from organic materials in the form of starch. Durian seed starch is one of the potential raw materials that can be used as bioplastics. Durian fruit is one of the typical fruits in Indonesia, at present seeds of durian had not been used as raw materials to produce object with economic values. It is necessary to combine the processing of durian seeds through a recovery approach in the form of processing into bioplastics. The aim of study is to analyze the effect of adding PEG 400 as a plasticizer plus calcium carbonate as a solidifier. Tests were carried out on swelling ability, acid and base resistance, tensile strength and biodegradation. The variation of the addition of PEG 400 is 4%; 30%; 50% and 70% were carried out to analyze the effect of different concentrations of plasticizers. None of the tensile test results met SNI 7188-11:2018 but all variations had biodegradation values according to SNI 7188-11:2018. Swelling test resulted from 4% and 30% are 1.2% and 2.1% respectively.