Degradation Characteristics of Environment-Friendly Bamboo Fiber Lunch Box Buried in the Soil

The research on the development of lunch boxes made of clean, environment-friendly, and naturally degradable plant fibers has attracted enormous attention. A bamboo fiber lunch box prepared by the clean and efficient steam explosion method has the advantages of good stiffness, water and oil resistance, and easy degradation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the degradation behavior of the environment-friendly bamboo fiber lunch box under indoor soil burial, as represented by the changes in physical properties, mechanical strength, chemical components, morphological structure, and so on. The results showed that: with the extension of the burial time, the weight loss increased rapidly from slowly to quickly; the boxes were completely degraded in the soil on the 70th day; the microorganisms in the soil first decomposed the tapioca starch, hemicellulose, and cellulose in the lunch box, and finally decomposed the lignin; the residual debris in the soil was further decomposed into CO2, H2O, and inorganic salts. In short, the degradation process of the lunch box mainly included the following stages: stage I: the increase in apparent roughness, the generation of microcracks, the rapid increase in weight loss, and the breakdown of starch and hemicellulose; stage II: the slow increase in the weight loss rate of the box fragmentation, the rapid decay of the mechanical strength, and the cellulose decomposition; stage III: the decomposition of lignin, the complete degradation of the debris, and the integration with the soil.

Automated summary

The study investigated the degradation behavior of environment-friendly bamboo fiber lunch boxes under indoor soil burial. The weight loss of the boxes increased rapidly with time and they were completely degraded in the soil after 70 days. Microorganisms in the soil decomposed starch, hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin sequentially, and the residual debris was further decomposed into CO2, H2O, and inorganic salts.