Study on biodegradable plastic from sago with addition of glycerol and serbitor

The synthesis of biodegradable plastic film was carried out by using sago starch as main raw material, water as solvent, glycerol and sorbitol as plasticizer. Sago was selected as raw material for plastics not only because it's cheap and easy to obtain, but also the utilization of sago is still very minimal. The research aimed to make the environmental friendly plastic, and to be better than the conventional ones. Parameters plasticizer of the research were glycerol and sorbitol by 7%, 8% and 9% weight of total mass, and the weight ratio of sago starch and water were 1:5, 1:7 and 1:9. The characteristics of plastic film that tested were the test mechanical of characteristic (tensile and elongation) by electronic system Universal Testing Machines, the water adsorption test in accordance with put the film in water for 24 hours, and biodegradability test by buring in the ground. The results showed that the highest tensile strength was 0.363 kgf/cm² from concentration of sorbitol 7% and ratio of sago starch and water 1:5. The other way, the highest elongation percent result obtained was 125% from concentration of glycerol 9% with ratio of sago starch and water 1:9. The lowest water adsorption test obtained was 11,11% from concentration 7% glycerol with ratio of sago starch and water 1:7 and the degradable process was performed in 9-12 days.