Regenerated Cellulose Films from Vegetable Waste: Fabrication, Characterization, and Sustainable Applications

Cellulose is a complex polysaccharide that serves as the primary structural component of plant cell walls. It is highly suitable for packaging films due to its inherent and tunable properties, which offer a sustainable alternative to conventional plastics. In this study, cellulose was extracted from vegetable waste (kale and cabbage) and processed into films using LiCl/N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) as the solvent system. The regenerated cellulose films were characterized and compared with a film prepared from commercial microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) using the same procedure. The vegetable-waste films showed a lower degree of crystallinity than the MCC film. SEM micrographs revealed that the vegetable-waste films possessed smooth and uniform surfaces. Furthermore, they demonstrated good transparency, ductility, and thermal stability. Biodegradation tests indicated rapid decomposition of the vegetable-waste films, which fully degraded within 10 weeks, whereas the MCC film required 16 weeks. The cabbage-derived film exhibited a smoother surface and slightly better mechanical properties than the kale-derived film, suggesting that differences in the cellulose source can influence the regeneration process and, consequently, the properties of the resulting films. Overall, this work demonstrates that vegetable waste can be effectively upcycled into eco-friendly, low-cost cellulose films with strong potential for use in various sustainable material applications. Nevertheless, for edible applications, cytotoxicity testing is required to confirm the absence of residual health-risk reagents such as LiCl and DMAc in the resulting films.