Waste Reduction through Agricultural Packaging Solutions: Upcycling Corn Husks for W.R.A.P.S.
Julian Silverman and Andie Zion
About this Item
- Title
- Waste Reduction through Agricultural Packaging Solutions: Upcycling Corn Husks for W.R.A.P.S.
- Date
- March 15, 2025
- 2025-03-15
- Summary
- This poster was created for the virtual Royal Society of Chemistry poster conference on LinkedIn in March of 2025.
- Abstract:
- Materials used for packaging consumer products end their life as waste in landfills and contribute to pollution. About 30% of the total waste produced by the United States each year includes petroleum-derived and paper-based packaging. A meaningful way to prevent waste is to create packaging from recycled waste materials, though most recycled packing materials still use around 50% virgin feedstocks to make the final product. Corn is the largest agricultural product in the United States and contributes to over 250 million tons of biowaste annually. To reduce the need for virgin feedstocks in single-use packaging, lignocellulosic recycled corn husks (RCH) are a viable option to create environmentally-friendly, recyclable, and compostable packaging. A circular process with benign oxidants for making a packaging material derived from corn husks with a high percentage of waste-derived content (> 75% by mass) was designed. Green chemistry metrics help us relate the material efficiency and circularity of different papermaking processes. This can help increase the percentage of recycled content in packaging materials and reduce the effects of waste from paper and plastics manufacturing.
- Description
- This work was graciously supported by the FIT President’s Sustainability Council Grant Awards, Karen Pearson, the Department of Science and Math at FIT, and the National Science Foundation (Award #1919563).
- Department: Science and Math (LAS); Julian Silverman, Assistant Professor (research advisor); Andie Zion (creator); Austin Marshalek (designer)
- Rights
- Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
- In Copyright
- The copyright for this work is held by its author/creator(s). Usage of this material beyond what is permitted by copyright law must first be cleared with the rights-holder(s). This work has been made available online by the Fashion Institute of Technology Gladys Marcus Library strictly for research and educational purposes. If you are the copyright holder for this work and have any objections to this work being made available online, please notify us immediately at [email protected].
- Identifier
- FIT Repository ID: fc_000124
Citation
Silverman, J., & Zion, A. (March 15, 2025). Waste Reduction through Agricultural Packaging Solutions: Upcycling Corn Husks for W.R.A.P.S.. FIT Institutional Repository. https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/648042
Silverman, Julian, and Andie Zion. Waste Reduction Through Agricultural Packaging Solutions: Upcycling Corn Husks for W.R.A.P.S.. March 15, 2025. FIT Institutional Repository, https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/648042
Silverman, Julian, and Andie Zion. "Waste Reduction Through Agricultural Packaging Solutions: Upcycling Corn Husks for W.R.A.P.S." FIT Institutional Repository, March 15, 2025. https://institutionalrepository.fitnyc.edu/item/648042