Valorization of Sour Milk to Form Bioplastics: Friend or Foe?

Valorization of Sour Milk to Form Bioplastics: Friend or Foe?

A demonstration was developed to introduce students to waste valorization in order to form bioplastics. Waste valorization is the process of reusing, recycling, or composting, from waste, useful products or sources of energy. In this demonstration, waste valorization is introduced by converting sour...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of chemical education Vol. 97; no. 4; pp. 1073 - 1076
Main Authors: Jefferson, Mark T, Rutter, Connor, Fraine, Katherine, Borges, Gabriel V. B, de Souza Santos, Gabriela M, Schoene, Frederico A. P, Hurst, Glenn A
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc 14-04-2020
American Chemical Society
Subjects:
Acidification
Bioplastics
Composting
Demonstration
Energy sources
Ethics
Hunger
Lemons
Milk
Plastic pollution
Rainforests
Recycling
Science education
Students
Sustainable development
Teachers
Vinegar
Hands-On Learning/Manipulatives
Materials Science
Polymer Chemistry
Systems Thinking
Sustainability
Green Chemistry
High School/Introductory Chemistry
Public Understanding/Outreach
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Summary:A demonstration was developed to introduce students to waste valorization in order to form bioplastics. Waste valorization is the process of reusing, recycling, or composting, from waste, useful products or sources of energy. In this demonstration, waste valorization is introduced by converting sour milk into a bioplastic via the addition of lemon juice upon heating. Utilizing lemon juice to perform the acidification offers a greener procedure than the traditional formaldehyde (used commercially to make galalith) and enhances the transferability in remote locations such as the Amazon Rainforest in comparison to vinegar. Students can establish connections to relevant United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) by adopting a systems thinking approach. However, through this, it is noteworthy that this process is also used (particularly in the Indian subcontinent) to make paneer, a farmer cheese. While this also enables students to make a link to additional UN SDGs pertaining to “zero hunger”, there is an ethical discussion to be had as to whether such a process that is utilized to feed malnourished citizens should be used to make a decorative bioplastic. As such, despite this demonstration being transferrable, instructors may consider carefully whether to utilize this resource, and, if so, to use this as an opportunity to teach the importance of ethics in science.
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ISSN:0021-9584
1938-1328
DOI:10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b00754