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The current research aims to study the influence of loading of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles on the mechanical, electrical, dielectric, thermal and dielectric breakdown strength properties of high density polyethylene (HDPE) specially used for the main insulation in power cables. The HDPE/Al2O3 and HDPE/TiO2 nanocomposites were prepared by melt blending technique with different ratios of nanoparticles. A modifier was used to reduce the agglomeration of TiO2 and Al2O3 nanoparticles inside the HDPE matrix. There are improvement in tensile strength (35% and 47.2%), tensile modulus (37.9% and 40.8%), flexural strength (18.8% and 23.1%), flexural modulus (11.2% and 12.4%), impact strength (11.8% and 13.9%), electrical conductivity (102 and 104), dielectric constant (80% and 224%), dielectric breakdown strength (35% and 41%), thermal stability (43°C and 34°C), melting point (5.5°C and 5.9°C), hardness (7.3% and 9.4%), and crystallization temperature (3.3°C and 4.2°C) of HDPE/Al2O3 and HDPE/TiO2 nanocomposites, respectively, after certain loading of both fillers compared to neat HDPE. The elongation at break and crystallinity were reduced after the addition of both nanofillers within the HDPE matrix. Except thermal stability, the titania based nanocomposites exhibited good performance compared to alumina based nanocomposites. Overall, this substantial improvement in results showed that both composites can be used for high voltage cable application.

Plastics around the globe have been a matter of grave concern due to the unavoidable habits of human mankind. Taking waste statistics in India for the year 2019–20 into account, the data of 60 major cities show that the generation of plastic waste stands tall at around 26,000 tonnes/day, of which only about 60 % is recycled. A majority of the non‐recycled plastic waste is petrochemical‐based packaging materials that are non‐biodegradable in nature. Vegetative/food waste is another global issue, evidenced by vastly populated countries such as China and India accounting for 91 and 69 tonnes of food wastage, respectively in 2019. The mitigation of plastic packaging issues has led to key scientific developments, one of which is biodegradable materials. However, there is a way that these two waste‐related issues can be fronted as the analogy of “taking two shots with the same arrow”. The presence of various bio‐compounds such as proteins, cellulose, starch, lipids, and waxes, etc., in food and vegetative waste, creates an opportunity for the development of biodegradable packaging films. Although these flexible packaging films have limitations in terms of mechanical, permeation, and moisture absorption characteristics, they can be fine‐tuned in order to convert the biobased raw material into a realizable packaging product. These strategies could work in replacing petrochemical‐based non‐biodegradable packaging plastics which are used in enormous quantities for various household and commercial packaging applications to combat the ever‐increasing pollution in highly populated countries. This paper presents a systematic review based on modern scientific tools of the literature available with a major emphasis on the past decade and aims to serve as a standard resource for the development of biodegradable packaging films from food/vegetative waste.

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