Title: Recycling and sustainable environmental practices of household tea waste

Authors: A. Atiqah; M.N.M. Ansari; R. Keresahnia; Sadeq Abdullah Abdo Alkhadher; Abul Quasem Al-Amin

Addresses: Institute of Power Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Jalan Ikram-Uniten, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia ' Institute of Power Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Jalan Ikram-Uniten, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Jalan Ikram-Uniten, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia ' Environmental Forensics Research Center (ENFORCE), Faculty of Environmental Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia ' Institute of Energy Policy and Research (IEPRe), Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN), Jalan Ikram-Uniten, 43000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia; Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, ON, Canada; Azman Hashim International Business School, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Jalan Semarak 54100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract: Tea wastes contain a group of important organic substances disposed of in a considerable amount to the environment without any treatment after the preparation of tea. Generally, uncontrolled release of these wastes has increased environmental concern mainly to the aquatic environment in recent years. In this study, an experiment of tea waste green composites was outlined to provide more knowledge and findings in utilising the tea waste as reinforcement. The current experimental investigation focuses mainly on the mechanical and characterisation of poly (lactic acid) (PLA) filled with household tea wastes (TW) green composites. The morphology properties of PLA with tea waste composites were characterised using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods. The results show that the addition of tea waste improved the mechanical properties of the composite nevertheless the crystalline structure was reduced due to the presence of tea waste particles. The study findings highly recommended that tea wastes should be environmentally managed and recycled for better utilisation as an energy source or in other valuable application to reduce the impact on environmental pollution.

Keywords: polylactic acid; PLA; tea waste; PLA composites; tea waste composites; environmental pollution.

DOI: 10.1504/IJETM.2019.104767

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, 2019 Vol.22 No.4/5, pp.352 - 363

Received: 15 Nov 2018
Accepted: 21 May 2019

Published online: 30 Jan 2020 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article