Development of environmental composite food films from polypropylene, starch and polylactic acid polymer blends

Waste growth is recognized as a serious environmental problem in many regions around the world. In the increase of waste; population growth, consumption habits, technological progress and human behavior are known as the main causes. The increase in waste causes some economic and social consequences. Climate change, water and soil pollution are among the most important negative effects on the environment. It is very important to take waste management and recovery measures, to reduce waste generation and to minimize the effects on the environment. The difficulties encountered as a result of the increase in the amount of waste make the "waste management approach" mandatory in a sustainable way. One of the sectors with the largest increase in waste is the packaging sector. Today, the packaging industry uses petroleum-derived synthetic polymers. Since plastics are light, durable, flexible and inexpensive in packaging production for many years, their use continues to increase. Like all wastes, plastic waste has become a global problem in the world. In the packaging sector, studies on the development of biodegradable and compostable packaging made from renewable and sustainable natural resources continue. Natural biopolymers (such as starch, zein, gelatin, chitosan), synthetic biopolymers (such as PLA) and other biopolymers are used in the development of biodegradable and compostable packaging. Among these, starch and PLA are the most widely used biopolymers among renewable and biodegradable polymer materials. In this thesis, it is aimed to produce and examine the properties of highly biodegradable food packaging films produced by adding PLA and thermoplastic starch (TPN), which are biodegradable polymers, into polypropylene (PP), a petroleum-derived polymer widely used in the food packaging industry. For this, different amounts of PLA and TPN were added to the PP and mixed in the extruder and turned into a film. Thickness, mechanical, water behavior, optical, barrier, migration, structure determination and thermal analyzes were performed on the films. Analysis results, thickness of the films 0.13-0.95 mm, tensile strength between 3.60-24.88 MPa, elongation at break between 3.54-8.97%, puncture force 9.97-41.87 N, puncture elongation between 2.45-18.71 mm, water vapor permeability is between 0-6.62 g/m2.h.kPa, L* values 65.7-91.3, a* values between -0.44 and -1.28, b* values between 3.30-13.82, ∆E values between 0.86-28.62, transparency values 0.52-4.28, overall migration values are between LOD and 50.4 mg/dm2.