Feasibility of producing biodegradable disposable paper cup from pineapple peels, orange peels and Mauritian hemp leaves with beeswax coating

While past studies have been carried out to form eco-friendly disposable tableware using non-wood biomass, there is no present groundwork so far where fruit peels waste composited with Mauritian hemp (Furcraea foetida) has been used for such purpose, which is novel to this research work. This study therefore assesses whether the production of 100% biodegradable disposable paper cups with acceptable strength properties using pineapple (Ananas comosus) peels, orange (Citrus sinensis) peels and Mauritian hemp as feedstock is feasible. Soda pulping followed by vacuum molding was done to produce hemp-pineapple peels and hemp:orange peels composite paper cups in different ratios. The cups were tested using relevant standards in terms of appearance and structure, burst strength, tensile strength, weight load, water leakage and biodegradability to find the optimum cup composition by comparing with a suitable control. All cups were visually conformant in terms of color and base stability. The 40:60 hemp-pineapple peels composite cup had characteristics closest to the control, with no cracks and variation rate of weight load, average thickness of 1.42 mm and burst and tensile indexes of 0.25 kPa m(2)/g and 3.30 Nm/g, respectively. Beeswax coating thickness of 0.70 mm on the optimum cup was adequate to retain cold water for 30 min (minimum) without any leakage. The cup also biodegraded completely in both active soil and damp sand environments within 5 and 6 weeks, respectively. Results therefore reveal that fiber extraction from fruit peel wastes and hemp leaves to produce eco-friendly, biodegradable disposable paper cups is viable.