www.tjprc.org editor@tjprc.org DEVELOPMENT OF MOULDED COMPOSITE TEXTILE TEXTURES FROM PLANT AND AGRO-WASTE MATERIALS LALITA RANI 1 & KANWALJIT BRAR 2 1 Research Scholar, Department of Apparel and Textile Science, College of Home Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India 2 Professor, Department of Apparel and Textile Science, College of Home Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India ABSTRACT The present study focused on the development of woven and moulded composite textures using plant and agro- waste materials. Rice and wheat straws and leaves are the most abundantly available plants and agro-waste materials of Punjab and have not been studied yet as it is required. During the study, three types of plant and agro-waste materials were selected for the development of textile textures. Two-textures for each of three types of selected materials (total six textures) were developed through weaving and moulding. Three plant waste materials, i.e. wheat and paddy straws and date palm leaves, suitable for use in natural form were woven in plain weave, and moulded composite textures were developed using epoxy resin. The weight (GSM) of PSP 4 (paddy straw × polyester),WSP 5 (wheat straw × polyester), and DPP 6 (date palm leaves × polyester) was 21.60 gm, 27.05gm and 29.45 gm, respectively. The thickness of WSP 5 was minimum (7.630 mm), while a thickness of DPP 6 was highest (10.01 mm). The developed woven and moulded composite textures from straws and leaves were found suitable for tiles for interior designing, office utilities such as coaster plates, paperweights, trays, pen holders, fancy boxes and file folders. KEYWORDS: Wheat and Paddy Straw, Date Palm Leaves, Woven, Moulded and Composite, Textures & Epoxy Resin Received: Feb 27, 2018; Accepted: Mar 19, 2018; Published: Mar 31, 2018; Paper Id.: IJASRAPR201824 INTRODUCTION India is an agrarian nation where the major part of the arable ground is used for agriculture and diverse crops are cultivated in different regions of the country. The plant waste materials include an orchard and vineyard prunings, vegetable by-products from farming, residual fruits, vegetable residues, and other crop remains after the usable crop is harvested, other plant wastes from canneries, wineries, or other industrial sources (Anon 2015). Plant residues left in the field after harvesting of produce, trimmings and plant parts discarded during pruning operations, weeds, surplus plants from thinning operations lead to tremendous plant waste materials. Depending on the crops grown, their productivity and cropping intensity, production of crop waste and their use varies in different regions. Agricultural waste management is an element of the environmental rotation in which all matter is recycled to facilitate a chain of interdependent relationship maintaining a bio-network. Through waste management, the plant residues are allocated at the suitable place and time to render as profitable products and control pollution. It is therefore evident that new applications need to be found for agricultural residues. The burning of crop residues in fields is one of the most noteworthy activities of global biomass burning (Streets et Original Article International Journal of Agricultural Science and Research (IJASR) ISSN(P): 2250-0057; ISSN(E): 2321-0087 Vol. 8, Issue 2, Apr 2018, 175-182 © TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.