The plastic materials used for packaging are increasing leading to a considerable amount of undegradable solid wastes. This work deals with the reduction of conventional plastics waste and the natural resources preservation by using cellulosic polymers from renewable resources (alfa and luffa). Plasticized starch films syntheses were achieved at a laboratory scale. These natural films showed some very attractive mechanical properties at relatively low plasticizers levels (12 to 17 % by weight). Furthermore, mixtures including polylactic acid polymer (PLA) and cellulose fibers extracted from alfa and luffa were investigated by melt extrusion technique. When used at a rate of 10 %, these fibers improved the mixture mechanical properties. Both developed materials were biodegradable, but the plasticized starch exhibited a faster biodegradation kinetic compared to the PLA/cellulose fibers. These new materials would contribute to a sustainable development and a waste reduction.

A new metal-organic hybrid compound [Fe(O 3 C 4)(COO)]•H 2 O I has been hydrothermally synthesized and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Rust crystals crystallize in the monoclinic system, space group I2/a, a = 6.9651(2) Å, b = 8.12630(10) Å, c = 19.4245(2) Å, β = 92.6600(10)˚; V = 1098.25(4) Å 3 ; Z = 2 and D x = 3.63 g/cm 3. The refinement converged into R = 0.042; R w = 0.058. The structure, determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction, consists of a network of FeO 6 centers, octahedral coordinated by btec (btec = 1,2,4,5-benzenetetracarboxylic acid) anions giving rise to a two-dimensional sheet structure. In the compound I, [Fe(O 3 C 4)(COO)]•H 2 O, the FeO 6 group bridged by the 1,2,4,5-benzenetetracarboxyl anion exist in a unit cell, with each anion lying about an inversion centre. One of the FeO 2 a distance [1.965(2)] significantly corresponds to the shortest distance as the other and the distances found in the axial direction of compound I.

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