Production of bioplastics and sustainable packaging materials from rice straw to eradicate stubble burning: A Mini-Review

Abstract

India is the second-largest producer of rice, which plays an important role in the GDP of the nation, but the burning of rice straw is one of the most severe issues, which the country is facing. The government has tightly regulated this practice, and the farmers are usually advised to incorporate the residue in the soil, but this management option is minimal because of its slow degradation properties in the soil and may also foster rice diseases. A lot of lab-scale and commercial research studies have been conducted on rice straw-based nanocomposites, but rice straw-based bioplastic is a much superior latest technology that is not much explored. Only a few researchers have worked on making biodegradable bioplastic packaging materials from rice straw. The developed technology not only eradicates the pollution problems caused because of stubble burning but also resolves the problem of synthetic plastic packs, which is another major issue worldwide as 40% of the total plastic is used in food packaging. The current study is aimed to explore the feasibility of this agricultural residue to get converted into useful biodegradable packaging materials that can work for agroecological and sustainable development.

Stubble burning: Root cause, impacts and its management in Indian scenario

“…Various research studies showed different statistics of crop residue generation (Table 1). It is quite challenging for farmers to manage substantial amount of stubble, which drags them to setting fire (Sain, 2020). Following are the most probable reasons of stubble burning in India:…”

“…This technology is already in use in some paper mills, where it provides approximately 60 percent of the energy needed. Paddy straw is also used as a common raw material in the production of paper and pulp board (Sain, 2020). This management practice might somehow possibly be an alternative to deforestation.…”

“…Stubble burning is deliberate act of burning the left over crop residues in the field in order to start land preparation for sowing of following crop. Ricewheat cropping pattern is prominent in India; precisely it is mostly followed in Indo-Gangetic plains of Haryana and Punjab which accounts largest quantity of stubble burning in India (Sain, 2020). Mostly, rice is harvested using combine harvester which leaves considerably more quantity of residue in the farm land itself.…”

Influence of microwave-assisted chemical treatment on delignification of rice straw biomass

“…with a global annual production of 181.5 billion tons and energy value between 5 and 50 EJ/year (Kang et al, 2014;Maurya et al, 2015;Paul and Dutta, 2018). Conventionally, lignocellulosic biomass has been used for the production of biofuels, bioethanol, grafted polymers, platform chemicals apart from its unscientific burning which causes secondary environmental pollution (Bozell et al, 2011;Kang et al, 2014;Mukherjee et al, 2018;Zheng et al, 2014;Sain, 2020). With the advent of nanoscience and nanotechnology, a revolutionary concept, the lignocellulosic biomass has been utilized non-conventionally by its miniaturization to nano-scale (Lee et al, 2014;Yu et al, 2021).…”

Effect of different concentrations of corn starch and whey protein on the characteristics of biodegradable cup

“…Biodegradable packaging materials are usually derived from lipids, polysaccharides, proteins or their combination and can also act as a barrier for moisture, gas, flavourings as well as lipid, which improve the food consistency by reducing its degradation and thereby enhancing its shelf stability. Biodegradable packaging is eradicated to synthetic plastic packaging (Sain, 2020).…”