Product Development Process of Nypa Paper from Nypa Palm (Nypa Fruticans Warm.) Waste Materials for Sustainability of Palian River Basin Community

Abstract

This research was aimed to develop the production process of paper from Nypa leaves waste (NL) and Nypa stalk waste (NS) which is a waste material from Cigarette wrapping production. The lignocellulose component of NL and NS was studied. The NL contained with cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin at 39.91±4.07, 49.59± 6.87 and 10.50±2.80 %, respectively. For NS, the cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin were 34.40±5.51 7.37±3.69 and 58.23±9.20 %, respectively. The pulp were prepared by using NaOH. At 2 % NaOH, the tissue yield of 56.52±1.82 % was obtained. The pulp was used to produce the paper by using 3 sets of experiment, these are (1) NL, (2) NS and (3) mixture of NL+NS. The properties of papers were then investigated. The paper prepared from NS gave highest resistance to tearing at 12.85±0.91 N/mm² where the NL+NS gave resistance to tearing at 7.88±0.87 N/mm² and 3.45±0.37 N/mm² for NL. One ton of waste material from cigarette wrapper production can be used to produce 1,900 m² of Nypa paper. The researcher has transferred the research knowledge to Ban Na Yod Tong Nipa Palm Leave Handicraft at Wangwon, Kantang district, Trang Province, Thailand and shared the idea for producing new products to be launched in the market such as present wrapping paper from Nypa leave, key card envelope, photo frame, packaging from Nypa paper, lamp, etc. and these were sold as community products.