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Conversion of rice straw into disposable food-serving bowl via refiner mechanical pulping: an environmentally benign approach to mitigate stubble burning and plastic pollution

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Abstract

Rice straw, a leftover vegetative part of rice plant, is neither efficiently composted nor used as a feed in India. Moreover, due to the need for quick disposal, operational difficulties in small-scale pulp and paper mills and lack of logistical convenience rice straw doesn’t find other large-scale commercial applications, and therefore is burnt openly in fields causing tremendous air pollution in parts of India. In the present work, a prospective commercially viable small-scale on-field utilization of rice straw was identified for the first time through an environmentally benign process. Refiner mechanical pulping was successfully used for converting rice straw into paperboard and a food-serving bowl. The prepared rice straw paperboard was found equivalent to grade-III Kraft paper as specified in IS 1397:1990, when compared for tensile and burst index. The molded bowl could become an environment friendly alternative for the presently used disposable food-serving containers made of plastics. Three different chemical treatments were attempted to impart water- and grease-resistance to the rice straw paperboard and bowl as demanded by the conceived application. Water absorption was reduced from 387 to 3 g·m−2 as measured by Cobb60 test and grease-resistance was improved from 0 to 10 as measure by Kit test. Moreover, the sizing process didn’t render the bowls harmful to consumers’ health in terms of toxicity. Summarily, the utilization of rice straw pulp for making value-added products holds promise in mitigating air pollution, reducing plastic-based disposables, and in promoting entrepreneurship in rural areas.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Govt. of India for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Paper Technology, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, 247667, Uttarakhand, India

    Shashank Saini, Ashish A. Kadam, Kirtiraj K. Gaikwad, Surendra Pratap Singh & Dharm Dutt

  2. Center for Rural Development and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi, 110016, India

    Vivek Kumar

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  1. Shashank Saini
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  2. Ashish A. Kadam
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Correspondence to Ashish A. Kadam.

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Saini, S., Kadam, A.A., Kumar, V. et al. Conversion of rice straw into disposable food-serving bowl via refiner mechanical pulping: an environmentally benign approach to mitigate stubble burning and plastic pollution. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 13, 6797–6806 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-021-01728-y

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