Cellulose Nanocrystals (NCC) from Cotton Waste & Mucilage and Fibers from Opuntia Ficus Indica (OFI). Extraction and Application in Paper and Thermoplastic Starch Films

In recent decades, the global economic and financial crisis, and its effects in the social and environmental sectors, have dramatically highlighted the urgent need for a transition to a “green economy”, environmentally responsible as well as more equitable and supportive of everyone (i.e. that neither damages future generations nor creates dangerous imbalances within current ones). Over time, this has been accompanied by a growing awareness that the eco-compatibility of a new economic paradigm does not inhibit wealth creation or depress employment opportunities. On the contrary, the large-scale deployment of 'green' sectors offers significant investment, growth and employment opportunities for the entire production system. The environmental sustainability, the need to minimise human and industrial impact, and to optimize the use of available resources, have led all countries in the world, especially the industrialized ones, to take a number of decisions: the implementation of reforms and incentives for the protection of natural resources, the enhancement of environmentally-friendly infrastructures, the introduction of new market-based mechanisms for the diffusion of eco-technologies, the creation of investements for innovation and the elimination of environmentally harmful sibsidies. All these choices are of enormous value especially if you think, for example, about the problem of the global use of synthetic plastics: of the total production, about 40% is used for packaging, a sector in which plastic products are used for short periods of time; the fact that they are usually not compostable and difficult to recycle determines the worsening of environmental problems, such as the increasing volume of waste and its disposal; in terms of pollution, therefore, plastics represent an inextinguishable waste. With this mind, the utilization of renewable sources and the reuse of waste biomasses represent environmental imperatives, the foundations of new economic models recycling the by-products of various industries and protecting the environment from the long-term effects of pollution. This PhD project, taking all these considerations into account, regarded the reuse of cellulose waste (Cellulosic Solid Residue – CSR) obtained from different sources, which guarantee a large and reasonably constant availability, namely cotton waste from worn out textiles and cladodes of Opuntia ficus indica (OFI, also referred to as Nopal) plants. The experimental procedures carried out aimed to recycle the CSR (zero waste strategy), whit the idea of operating as much as possible in conditions of circular economy, optimizing the low-cost production of valuable substances [Cellulose Nanocrystals (NCC) in the first case, Nopal (mucilage and fibers) in the second one] to be introduced into different modern materials [Paper and Thermoplastic Starch (TPS) Films] in order to obtain their performance improvement (micro-morphological, mechanical and thermal properties were analyzed). The general objective of the entire work was to identify suitable applications for the specific waste materials mentioned above, of scarce or null economical value, suggesting the optimal processes for their treatment and final reuse, the whole in collaboration with important economic and cultural actors of Marche and Lazio regions (Italy).