biodegradable

Cucumber Peels for Ecofriendly Food Packaging

Cucumber Peels for Ecofriendly Food Packaging

Are you throwing away the cucumber peels after preparing your salad? You may soon have them back in your kitchen as the eco-friendly packaging material for food items. IIT Kharagpur researchers have developed cellulose nanocrystals from cucumber peels with high cellulose content, compared to other peel wastes, which can be used to create food packaging materials. While single-use plastic is consciously being avoided by consumers, they still remain largely in circulation as food packaging items. Natural biopolymers are unable to make way in this industry as they lack strength, elongation, barrier property, optical property, and in some cases even biological…
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The show begins

The show begins

The IIT Kharagpur campus came alive today with the arrival of 32 teams of school children from all over India, as well as east and west Asia for the Young Innovators Program. For many of the children and their teachers and parents, it had been a long journey from home, but the excitement of reaching their destination and being part of the milling crowd of participants and guests refreshed them in no time. The children especially got down to the business of knowing each other almost immediately. As the day wore off, it was difficult to believe that some of…
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Taking charge

Taking charge

The International Conference on Advances in Polymer Science and Rubber Technology (APSRT) at IIT Kharagpur, organized by the Rubber Technology Centre from September 24-27, discussed what should be the future agenda for the world threatened by Climate Change. Plastics naturally figured prominently in the conference that mulled over how polymer science and the rubber industry had to focus intensively on driving innovation within the broad sustainability framework through waste prevention, re-use, repair, remanufacture and recycling. Prof. Thomas Kurian of the Cochin University of Science and Technology, for example, explained chemical recycling of PET bottles by a route based in aminolysis.…
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