SOUTHERN BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY SOUTHERN BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY. ISSN 0104-5431. vol.27, n°27. 2019. Downloaded from www.sbjchem.com Established in 1993. 30 PRODUCTION OF BIOPLASTIC FROM POTATO STARCH CORDEIRO, Paula Novais 1* ; CAETANO, Skarllet Toledo 2 ; DE CARVALHO, Raquel Moreira Maduro 3 1,2,3 Departamento de Engenharia Química, União de Ensinos Superiores de Viçosa, Viçosa, MG * Autor correspondente E-mail: paulacordeiro002@hotmail.com Received 25 October 2019; received in revised form 30 November 2019; accepted 08 December 2019 ABSTRACT Due to their diverse properties, plastic materials are used in numerous sectors. It is possible to produce different articles and plastic objects with reduced costs, being more accessible to the population. Conventional plastics are obtained from petroleum-derived raw materials, a non-renewable resource in which their extraction and refining process cause major environmental impacts. The production of plastic reaches a level of approximately one hundred and forty million tons per year, and the disposal of these materials is increasing, generating a high rate of waste and leading to an increase of pollution since the decomposition of these materials lasts about five hundred years old. Conventional plastics can be replaced by bioplastics, a material obtained from renewable raw materials such as potatoes, cassava, maize, and which, when disposed of under favorable conditions, decomposes faster, as during its degradation process at least one step occurs. Through the metabolism of organisms present in the environment. Starch has been widely used in the production of biodegradable packaging, so the objective of this work was to produce a biodegradable bioplastic from the potato starch. Potato starch, glycerin, hydrogen peroxide, distilled water, and commercial agar were used to produce the bioplastic. Bench-scale bioplastics had good organoleptic characteristics, similar in appearance to a conventional plastic obtained from petroleum. The thickness, moisture content, and solubility of the bioplastics were analyzed, as well as their fruit preservation capacity. The samples produced were rigid and with good resistance. Keywords: Plastics, Bioplastics, Starch 1. INTRODUCTION Plastic is an organic and synthetic polymer, solid in your final stage as a finished product, and at some point, in its production phase was turned to fluid, suitable for molding by the actions of heat and pressure (Piatti e Rodrigues, 2005). Most of the industrial plastic materials have petroleum as raw material, a non- renewable natural source (Telles, 2011). Among the most used plastics, it is possible to highlight the polypropylene (PP), high density polyethylene (HDPE) and low density (LDPE). Currently, 140 million tons of plastic are produced per year, distributed between different products. This number is related to the easy processing and low cost of this material (Oliveira, Lacerda, Alves, Santos, Oliveira, and Batista, 2012; Macedo, 2015). Plastic is a material of difficult compaction, which can lead to waste accumulation in the environment, also compromising the decomposition of other organic materials. Plastic material is resistant to fungi and bacteria, resulting in a slow degradation. In direct contact with the environment, it can take around 100 thousand years to be decomposed. Most of its waste is discarded at dumps and landfills, leading to concern around the disposal process (Machado, 2011; Franchetti, Marconato, 2006). In Brazil, approximately 25 thousand ton of plastic packing are discarded every day, which compose 20% of all waste produced, and 80% of these plastic packings are used only once before going to thrash (Ministério do Meio Ambiente, 2016). Due to the great environmental impact caused by the use of plastic products, in the past years has been studied alternative routes to obtain plastics made by renewable sources, such as bioplastics. This material is similar to conventional plastic, though its degradation time is much shorter, showing to be a much more ecological option (Rodríguez, 2012; Moreno- Bustillos, Humarán-Sarmiento, Báez-Valdez, Báez-Hernández and León-Villanueva, 2017). DOI:10.48141/SBJCHEM.v27.n27.2019.36_2019.pdf