Recycling and sustainable environmental practices of household tea waste

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. Copyright © 2019 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.