WEAVING APPLICATION OF BANANA PEDUNCLE WASTE UTILISATION AS AN ALTERNATIVE OF PRODUCT MATERIAL

• Main Author: NUR (NIM: 27115020), CHRISTMASTUTI
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/21513
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Bananas (Musa) are popular herbaceous plants which have a wealth of benefits and can be easily cultivated; therefore, many of food processing industries use bananas as the main ingredient. However, not all of the wastes from the banana processing industry are well managed, including the waste of the peduncles which are usually heaped on the ground in the backyard or directly dumped along the river. It inevitably causes not only environmental pollution but also endangers people’s health around. Accordingly, this research aims to reveal and utilise the worthless banana peduncle waste to be a higher value material. Several experiments, properties tests, and structural and visual explorations were conducted as the methods of this research. The experiments consisted of three stages: extracting, processing, and spinning-twisting with ready to use cord-yarns of banana peduncle fibres as the result. The following phase were properties tests, including tensile test and colour intensity test. The result of the tensile test at the similar variables shows that the average grade of tensile strength of banana peduncle fibre is almost equal to coir and abaca fibre. Likewise, the result of colour intensity test shows that banana peduncle fibre is almost the same as abaca fibre, even better than coir in absorbing colours. Based on the properties and comparison studies of banana peduncle fibre with abaca and coir, the banana peduncle fibre can be used as an alternative of product materials to substitute abaca fibre, particularly on carrier and homeware product categories, which are usually produced using weaving techniques. Structural and visual explorations were also conducted by applying basic weaving technique using the cord-yarns of banana peduncle fibres. These explorations produce fifteen woven patterns which can be used in several product categories. The final results of this research are five alternatives of ready to use woven sheets of banana peduncle fibres with various colours and size of yarns.