Over the years, the world was not paying strict attention to the impact of rapid growth in plastic use. This has led to unprecedented amounts of mixed types of plastic waste entering the environment unmanaged. Packaging plastics account for half of the global total plastic waste. This paper seeks to give an overview of the use, disposal, and regulation of food packaging plastics. Demand for food packaging is on the rise as a result of increasing global demand for food due to population growth. Most of the food packaging are used on-the-go and are single use plastics that are disposed of within a short space of time. The bulk of this plastic waste has found its way into the environment contaminating land, water and the food chain. The food industry is encouraged to reduce, reuse and recycle packaging materials. A wholistic approach to waste management will need to involve all stakeholders working to achieve a circular economy. A robust approach to prevent pollution today rather than handling the waste in the future should be adopted especially in Africa where there is high population growth.
Plastics have remained the material of choice, and after serving their intended purpose, a large proportion ends up in the environment where they persist for centuries. The packaging industry is the largest and growing consumer of synthetic plastics derived from fossil fuels. Food packaging plastics account for the bulk of plastic waste that are polluting the environment. Additionally, given the fact that petroleum reserves are finite and facing depletion, there is a need for the development of alternative materials that can serve the same purpose as conventional plastics. This paper reviews the function of packaging materials and highlights the future potential of the adoption of green materials. Biopolymers have emerged as promising green materials although they still have very low market uptake. Polylactic acid (PLA) has emerged as the most favoured bioplastic. However, it is limited by its high cost and some performance drawbacks. Blending with agricultural waste and natural fillers can result in green composites at low cost, low greenhouse gas emissions, and with improved performance for food packaging applications. The continent of Africa is proposed as a rich source of fibres and fillers that can be sustainably exploited to fabricate green composites in a bid to achieve a circular economy.
Recently, natural fibers become attractive to automotive industry as an alternative reinforcement for glass fiber reinforced thermoplastics. Additionally, natural fiber components in the automotive industry can provide numerous advantages compared to synthetic conventional such as reduction of weight and cost, recyclability, renewability and in addition to eco-efficiency. Thus, the use of natural fibers in the automotive industry has shown increasingly stringent environmental criteria. Furthermore, amongst grouped bast fibers such as flax, hemp, jute, ramie, and kenaf; kenaf fiber is seen as a potential natural fiber with robust mechanical properties. Kenaf fiber had been explored to enhance desired mechanical properties as automotive structural components. As usual, natural fibres have some issues and disadvantages when used as reinforcements for polymeric composites. Therefore, some modification performed on fibers such as chemical treatment was carried out. In addition, the use of a coupling agent and a plasticizer can also increase fiber-matrix adhesive bonding.
Problem statement: Noise control was one of the major requirements to improve the living environment. One of the methods to do that is provided by sound absorber. Commonly, multi-layer sound absorbers are applied to absorb broadband noise that was composed of perforated plates, air space and porous material. However, multi-layers sound absorbers effectiveness depends on their construction. This study was conducted to investigate the potential of using coconut coir fiber as sound absorber. The effects of porous layer backing and perforated plate on sound absorption coefficient of sound absorber using coconut coir fiber were studied. Approach: Car boot liners made from woven cotton cloth were used as type of porous layer in the study. This material has been used widely in automotive industry. Perforated plate used was machined with perforation ratio of 0.20, thickness of 1 mm and holed diameter of 2 mm. The samples were tested at the acoustic lab of the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, University Kebangsaan Malaysia, according to ASTM E 1050-98 international standards for noise absorption coefficient. Results: The experiment data indicates that porous layer backing can improve noise absorption coefficient at low and high frequencies with significant increasing. 20 mm thick layer coconut coir fiber with porous layer backing exhibit peak value at frequencies between 2750-2825 Hz with maximum value of 0.97. The experimental results also found that the coconut coir fiber with perforated plate gives higher value for lower frequencies range from 600-2400 Hz. The optimum value for coconut coir fiber with perforated panel is around 0.94-0.95 for the frequency range 2600-2700 Hz. Conclusion: Noise absorption coefficient of coconut coir fiber was increased at all frequency when they were backing with Woven Cotton Cloth (WCC). At low frequency, the NAC have significant increasing. This is because WCC have higher flow resistivity than coconut coir fibers, so that sound can be dissipated as it travels through material significantly. The results from the experimental tests show that it has good acoustic properties at low and high frequencies and can used to be an alternative replacement of synthetic based commercial product. By using the porous layer and perforated plate backing to coconut coir fiber, the sound absorber panel shows a good potential to be an environmentally friendly product. This innovative sound absorption panel has a bright future because they are cheaper, lighter and environmentally compare to glass fiber and mineral based synthetic materials.
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