How leftover avocado peel, stale bread, and sago could be the future of bioplastics

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-01-15 03:00

Australia; VIC

Story by Steven Mew, Australian Science Media Centre. Image by JohnyVid from Pixabay

Eco-friendly food packaging could be made by combining avocado peel, stale bread and sago, according to Aussie researchers, who made a bioplastic film that they say could be used for food packaging, and also has potential for biomedical, pharmaceutical, and environmental uses. The bioplastic uses avocado peel to create carbon dots - tiny particles which allow existing bioplastics to stay stable when exposed to sunlight, have antibacterial and antioxidant activity, and are non toxic The team says their avocado-enhanced bioplastic can be made by upcycling food waste and represents a big step forward in the transition from synthetic to natural plasticsfor food packaging.

Journal/
conference: Matter

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Deakin University, RMIT University

Funder: S.J. gratefully acknowledges Deakin University for its generous support through the Alfred Deakin Research Fellowship, which made this research possible. The authors acknowledge funding from the Centre for Sustainable and Bioproducts at Deakin University.

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