Potentiality of sustainable corn starch-based biocomposites reinforced with cotton filter waste of spinning mill

The textile sector is among the leading industries globally in terms of releasing pollutants and producing waste. Despite being reusable, many wastes are squandered by disposing to landfills or incineration, creating a serious environmental threat. Because the cost of raw materials makes up a significant portion of the total product cost, manufacturers can obtain significant profits by exploiting waste generated during the manufacturing process. Herein, an attempt has been taken to utilize cotton filter waste (CFW) (collected from the humidification plant of the spinning mill) as reinforcement in manufacturing biocomposites with the corn starch (CS) matrix. Starch was considered to be the most suitable matrix as it is sustainable, abundant, natural, biodegradable, and, more importantly, capable of showing thermoplastic behavior under high temperatures. Sheets of corn starch composites reinforced with different wt% of cleaned cotton filter waste were fabricated using hand layup and compression molding techniques. The 50 wt% cotton waste was found to be optimum loading in terms of tensile strength, Young's modulus, bending strength, toughness, impact strength, and thermal Conductivity of the biocomposites. SEM micrographs revealed good interfacial adhesion (bonding) in matrix and filler interfaces, with the most substantial bonding for composites containing 50% fibers that concomitantly enhanced the mechanical properties of composites. The obtained biocomposites are deemed to be a sustainable alternative to non-degradable synthetic polymeric materials like Styrofoam for packaging and insulation applications.