High degradation bioplastics chitosan-based from scale waste of milkfish (Chanos chanos)

Bioplastic that is synthesized from natural materials such as chitosan is a renewable solution to reduce plastic waste in the environment because they are easily decomposed. In this study, chitosan (CS) was extracted from Milkfish scales waste to produce composite bioplastic CS/PVA/PEG to determine the effect of CS on the mechanical properties and degradation time. The average particle size of chitin is 8.5 μm and crystallinity of 57.18 % and for CS, the particle size is 3.5 μm and crystallinity of 64.94 %. The degree of deacetylation of CS is 84.1 % which met the quality standard of Indonesian national standard (SNI) Number: 7949:2013. The tensile strength of bioplastics for 0.5 g CS of 0.21 MPa increases to 0.24 MPa for 2 g CS in composite bioplastics CS/PVA/PEG. The biodegradation performance of bioplastic samples takes 72 h to completely decompose in soil for CS-based and in seawater for chitin-based, means that highly recommended to develop in future.