The Effect of the Addition of Waste-Derived Biofillers on the Degradation of Ethylene–Norbornene (EN) Copolymers Under Laboratory Composting Conditions

The objective of the present study was to investigate the potential effects of biofillers derived from fruit waste, a byproduct of the food-processing industry, on the degradation of ethylene-norbornene (EN) copolymers under the controlled conditions of laboratory composting. This manuscript provides a comprehensive analysis of the influence of waste biofillers on the biological degradation of EN-based materials, thereby filling a gap in the existing literature on the subject. The concept of this work encompasses the enhancement of the degradability of synthetic EN through the incorporation of bioadditives. Waste apple and chokeberry pomace were added to EN as biofillers in amounts of 5, 10, and 15 phr (parts per hundred rubber). The polymeric materials were composted for 3 and 6 months under laboratory conditions. We assessed the susceptibility of the samples to the growth of microorganisms, as well as the mass loss of the polymeric materials after composting. The findings indicated that the bioadditives increased the compostability of the materials, as evidenced by the elevated carbonyl indices observed for the samples containing biofillers. Furthermore, the elevated polar component of the surface energy exhibited by the samples containing biofillers suggested a heightened susceptibility to composting processes, attributable to their augmented hydrophilicity, in comparison to the reference EN. Fruit pomace is a promising additive for increasing the compostability of synthetic polymeric materials.