ABSTRACT
Plastic pollution is a global issue, seriously affecting soil by preventing oxygen intake and causing soil erosion and degradation. The outbreak of COVID-19 has worsened the plastic pollution from traditional plastic face masks. This phenomenon demands that the community and stakeholders should take action to reduce “white pollution”. At the same time, million of tons of agricultural garbage, mainly rice straw and sugarcane garbage, were produced in the Asian region causing difficulties in treatment. Most of them were burned in the field, releasing tiny particles of PM 2.5 and air pollutants. This paper aims to transform cellulose material wastes, particularly rice straws and sugarcane bagasse, into bio-plastic products that can replace traditional degradable plastics. Several steps were conducted to extract the maximum mass of cellulose from agricultural residue. To minimize the chemical use, a new approach in the repreparation steps was achieved by integrating cellulose extracted from Bacillus subtilis. Different ratios of adding chemicals and processes were applied to form and mold plastic film. The new bioplastic materials generated from rice straw and sugarcane garbage exhibit excellent mechanical properties with tensile strength from 10 to 42 MPa. The elongation was from 25 % to 100 % in different ratios of plasticizers and types of cellulose material. The morphology of bio-plastic was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and showed a uniform and compact structure. The changing functional groups were analyzed by infrared spectrum IR. The results showed that different methods of extraction and molding would produce bio-plastic with other properties. Bioplastic from agricultural waste is a high-potential plastic for various applications. This result will help reduce traditional plastic pollution and CO2 emissions to the atmosphere by burning agriculture residue, thereby contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals of The United Nations. © 2022, Publishing House of Natural Science and Technology, VAST. All rights reserved.