Arnyanthi Yulita, Production of biodegradable plastic using sagu starch, Makassar. Supervisor I : Dra. Sri lestari, M.Si and Supervisor II : Tri Hartono, LSRC,M.Chem.Eng.
Waste plastic may lead serious problem. Eventhugh plastic is freguently used in daily activities due to its advantage properties, such as the price to decrease, to be able easy, and lasting, however it is dificullt to decompose in land. As a result it causes a serious environmental problem. To overcome the negative impact of plastic disposal, biodegradabel plastic which by nature can be decomposed is being developed.
The purpose of this research is to produce biodegradable plastic to be use as packed food and drink plastic. Initially, sagu starch powder was dluted into ethanol and gliserol was added. The mixture was then heated poured onto a flat casting. Finally, the product was cooled for several days at room’s temperature and presurre until the film was formed.
The result of his research is that plastic film from the raw material of dried sagu powder was formed faster than that of wet sagu film has capacity to withstand the maximum temperature of 2300C, while dried sagu is only 2200C. The biodegradability test shows both films are quicker to decompossed in the media of waste tofu water containing Bacillus cereus microorganism compared to that of garbage soil. They are in the range of four to eleven days and six to fifthin days respectivelly. Furthermore the properties of flexibility carried out by tensile test shows that wet sagu film has tensile strength of 0,0954 N/m2 and dried sagu film is only 0,0794 N/m2. On the other hand, the elongation test result of dried sagu films is higher compared to wet sagu film. They are 15,56% and 14,77% respect.