Eco-friendly flagging tape

Abstract

One of the problems of using commercial flagging tapes is that they are produced with non-degradable plastic and remain in the environment for long periods. To find a solution, an eco-friendly flagging tape was developed. Bacterial cellulose (BC) was used to produce a cellulose-based film and it was hypothesised that coating the tapes with a polymer would improve their resistance. So, two natural polymers (chitosan and hyaluronic acid) were used to coat the BC tapes. The wet BC was also stained with natural pigments extracted from carrot and spinach. Mechanical testing showed that uncoated BC tapes have similar resistance to hyaluronic acid coated tape. However, the chitosan-coated tapes and the tapes pigmented with the selected pigments showed a decrease in mechanical resistance. Biodegradability tests showed that the uncoated BC tape and BC tape coated with chitosan or hyaluronic acid did not fully degrade within three months.