#TITLE_ALTERNATIVE#

• Main Author: MULYASIR (NIM : 15311029 ), AHMAD
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/20849
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

The usage of biodegradable polymer or biodegradable plastic is one of the alternative method to inhibit the accumulation of polymers made from petroleum which difficult to degrade in the environment. Nowadays, there are so many plastic with biodegradable label. Unfortunately, the biodegradable label can not guarantee that the plastic is biodegradable. Sometimes, it is only destroyed, not biologically degrade. There are several standards regulation to determine the biodegradable plastic, one of them is ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials). ASTM 5338 (1998) is one of the examination standard for biodegradable plastic by controlling it on the compost media. Several researches had been conducted the examination based on this standard. Generally, the researches only focus on the biodegradable plastic degradation by controlling the physical and chemical characteristics from the composting procces. This research was conducted to know the physical, chemical and biologycal characteristics from biodegradable plastic composting based on the ASTM 5338 (1998) standard. The results for biodegradable plastics degradation on 11 weeks composting media shows that the weight reduction reached 25.06%. From the biologycal side, there are some isolated bacteria which can grow on the plastic surfaces of the composting media. The identified isolated bacteria are Bacillus substilis, Bacillus lentus, Erwinia herbicola, Cedecea davisae and Staphylacoccus gallinarium. The bacterias are predicted to assist the biodegradable plastics degradation process.