Bogor — There is no denying that plastic has become very important in human daily life. Being pliable, durable, versatile and affordable, plastics have continually seen a steady growth in demand to meet the rising need of people and industries.

More than 40% of the plastic use is aimed for packaging and the rest for construction and building applications, textile, furniture products and other kinds of products.

But behind its versatility in human life, the plastics have also become a dangerous pollutant to the ecosystem and human health. The conventional plastics are derived from a cracking process of oil and gas, which are non-biodegradable as they are not categorized as biological compound.

Fossil-based plastics ruin our future

Plastics take between 100 to 500 years to decompose completely. Due to longer time for decomposing, plastics will pollute soils, rivers, oceans and even the air.

It is predicted that in 2050 the world will see more plastic wastes than fishes in oceans. They will threaten marine life as they harm marine life or being eaten by fishes, whales or turtles. Burning plastic wastes can also pollute soils and becomes the source of carbon emissions that pollute the air.

Besides, the plastic wastes are potential to split into smaller particles or micro-plastics at the size of 0.3-0.5 millimeter, which can enter living things, including human being and are potential to cause various kinds of diseases that include cancer, stroke, respiratory diseases and others.

Indonesians as environmental polluters

Indonesia has been named as the world’s second largest producer of plastic wastes, after China. Therefore, the Indonesian government has implemented the program to ban the use of disposable plastics at shopping malls and supermarkets in a number of regions as part of efforts to solve the problems of plastic wastes. But the program is considered not the right solution to the plastic wastes. It has been proven by the data from Statistics Indonesia (BPS) that plastic wastes in Indonesia have reached 64 million tons per year.

Now, it can be worsened by the rising use of single-use plastic gallons, which is considered to further increase the plastic wastes in Indonesia. Considering the facts, Indonesia needs to find more effective solutions to reduce the use of conventional plastics and in turn reduce the plastic wastes.

Bio-plastics from palm oil

One alternative solution that is considered effective to solve the plastic waste problem is the replacement of the fossil-based plastics to biodegradable plastics or bioplastics. Bio-plastics are eco-friendly and easily degradable, so that after being used and thrown away they will be easily decomposed by microorganisms without leaving toxic substances.

One of the organic substances that can be used to make bio-plastics is the empty palm fruit bunches (TKKS). The oil palm biomass has a high content of cellulose, hemicellulose and  lignin, making it the right and potential substance as the raw material to produce the palm-based bio-plastics.

One of the chemical compounds that can be produced from the cellulose of the empty palm bunches is lactic acid which is the main raw material for production of biodegradable polymer in the form of poly-lactic acid (PLA). The polymer can be made as an alternative replacement of conventional polymer, such as  Polyethylene (PE), Polypropylene (PP), Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and polystyrene (PS).

Based on the research of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), the PLA from the empty palm bunches is rich in cellulose and hemi-cellulose as the source of glucose which has big potential to be converted into lactic acid through the process of fermentation by bacteria and then the lactic acid is polymerized into PLA. Not only from the biomass of empty palm bunches, the PLA can be also derived from glycerin as joint product of palm-based biodiesel.

The new research conducted by Bogor University of Agriculture (IPB) has also resulted in the production of ecofriendly bioplastics from the biomass of empty palm bunches through the application of nanotechnology on the cellulose. The application of the technology can increase the mechanic characteristics of polymer of the palm-based bio-plastics, which can produce palm-based bio-plastics with higher quality compared to other products available in the market.

Types of palm-based bio-plastics

Poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (P3HB) is one of the types of palm-based bio-plastics that is biodegradable. It is accumulated within the bacterial cells when the bacteria experience an excess of carbon source. The product can be resulted from the bacterial isolates of Bacillus sp.TG on palm oil which is rich in carbon.

Other type of bio-plastics is Polihidroksialkanoat (PHA), which is the synthesis result of various bacteria from substrates, including sugars and fatty acid, which are also potential to become the substitute of plastic packaging material. The solid biomass wastes in the forms of empty palm bunches and palm trunks, and liquid waste from palm oil mills (POME) can be also used as potential raw material to produce PHA due to the high content of cellulose in the palm biomass that can be made as reducing sugar and also the content of fatty acid in POME.

It means that Indonesia, as the world’s largest producer of palm oil and largest oil palm plantations, has a very big potential of palm oil, palm biomass, and POME that can be made as the raw material for the production of bio-plastics. The products of palm-based bio-plastics have bigger advantages compared to the fossil-based plastics as they are biodegradable, do not pollute the environment and cause no harm to human health.

Palm-bioplastics will become RI’s environmental hero

Besides solving the problem of environmental pollution and improve the human health, the palm-based bioplastics will also save Indonesia’s foreign exchange as it will reduce the imports of petrochemicals that are used as raw materials to produce plastics in the country.

Actually, a number of universities and research institutions in Indonesia have conducted researches on palm-based bioplastics. If the government is serious in helping the industrial start-ups  to produce the palm-based bioplastics, Indonesia will only need a short time to produce the bioplastics as the replacement of the fossil-based plastics. From the palm biomass alone, Indonesia is potential to produce 6 million tons of  bioplastics every year.

Palm-based bioplastics have more advantages as follows:

• Biodegradable, and causes no pollution to environment.
• Organic, non-toxic and causes no harm to human health.
• Used palm wastes as raw materials, reduce petrochemical imports and save foreign exchange of around US$7 billion.
• Indonesia’s opportunity to become the exporter of bioplastic pellets.

The Trademap data shows that Indonesia’s import value of petro-plastics (HS 3901-3914) in 2019 reached US$ 5.78 billion. The foreign exchange can be saved by producing the bioplastics in Indonesia. The fund can be used for subsidy of domestic industries, which will then create bigger multiplier effect (job opportunities, state income, output) in the country.

Realization of bioplastics needs full government support

It is now up to the government to support the development of the bioplastic industry at home through business-friendly policies, incentives and financing. Many experts from universities of Indonesia have already studied the palm-based bioplastic production. With the support of the government, they can upgrade their researches into pilot projects and then enter industrialization and commercialization. The green NGOs that have focused their attention to the conservation of environment are also expected to support the development of the palm-based bioplastic industries in Indonesia. (*)

Source: palmoilina.asia