The environmental problem due to plastic waste had become serious because it could not be recycled neither be degraded naturally by microbe in land. Thus, in the present study, a bioplastic was produced based on cassava starch as the matrix and cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) from Mangosteen peel as reinforcing filler. The CNC was added into the bioplastic with varied concentration at 1 g (BP2), 2.5 g (BP3), 5 g (BP4) and without CNC as BP1. The isolation of CNC followed series of steps (delignification, bleaching, hydrolysis and sonication) before added to the matrix. The effect of CNC addition towards mechanical properties was determined using universal testing machine (UTM) and analyzed using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Results showed that the FTIR analysis confirmed an absorption pattern of cellulose in the starch/CNC bioplastic matrix whereas the effect in tensile strength, tensile modulus and elongation at break were compared to the pure bioplastic without CNC. The highest tensile strength peaked at 1.93 MPa while Young’s modulus at 26.82 GPa was observed for BP1. On the contrary, the addition of CNC fillers to the bioplastics increased the elongation at break and the density while the elongation at break reached the lowest percentage is 13.93% and the lowest density value is 952.5 kg/m3. Based on overall observation, this study proved that the addition of CNC on the other hand the mechanical properties showed the different result.

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The scarcity of fresh and hygienic water sources leads to a demand of more research for the treatment of wastewater. One of the possible ways is using a watermelon rind as a natural coagulant where its performance was investigated in terms of turbidity, pH and BOD. Watermelon rind (WR) and alum(A) at different compositions (WR100, WR50A50, WR70A30, A100) were introduced in the synthetic wastewater before treated on natural wastewater by jar test. Results revealed that the turbidity, pH as well as dissolved oxygen level were highly dependent on the coagulant dosage. About 90% of turbidity was reducing at 70% of powdered watermelon rind and 30% alum (WR70A30) on the contrary only 72% in natural wastewater. In addition, WR70A30 had better reduction in turbidity as compared to using 100A. On the other hand, final pH reading falls approximately in the range of 6 to 8, respectively which is acceptable for the standard wastewater discharge. Meanwhile, the results for the BOD5 for the natural wastewater is in the ranges between 0.35 to 1.39 had met the WHO standard. Finally, the FTIR analysis on treated and untreated watermelon rind confirms similar peaks of functional groups. Overall, the present study on WR as coagulant show a good performance in treating both natural and synthetic wastewater.