Abstract
In this modern era, the use of plastic materials has increased over time. This phenomenon affects the growth of plastic waste that causes the need for bioplastics as an alternative material. Therefore, the development of natural fibers utilizations like Kapok (Ceiba Pentandra) as bioplastics raw material becomes necessary. The bioplastic composites manufacture process by mixing Polypropylene (PP) synthetic plastic with natural polymers from Kapok fiber occurred in several stages: Kapok fiber isolation, cellulose acetate synthesis, cellulose acetate purification, and bioplastics manufacture. This study strived to determine the type of plasticizer and PP filler effects on the bioplastic composite characteristics. The production of bioplastic composites consisted of two types of plasticizers, namely 20 % glycerol and 40 % sorbitol, with mass variations of PP as filler (0 g, 1 g, 2 g, and 3 g). The results revealed that the addition of the type of plasticizer and the mass of the PP filler provided distinct impacts on the characteristics of the bioplastic composite. The soundest bioplastic composite retained with 1.0714 g/mL of density value, 5.7225 kPa of tensile strength value, 1.82 % of elongation, 3.1442 kPa of Young's modulus, 20.41 % of water absorption, and the mass degraded by 25.94 % gained from the addition of sorbitol plasticizer and 1 g of PP filler. In other words, the bioplastics have met the standard for plastic packaging for food and groceries based on Indonesian National Standard, ASTM and JIS.
