Plastics have remained the material of choice, and after serving their intended purpose, a large proportion ends up in the environment where they persist for centuries. The packaging industry is the largest and growing consumer of synthetic plastics derived from fossil fuels. Food packaging plastics account for the bulk of plastic waste that are polluting the environment. Additionally, given the fact that petroleum reserves are finite and facing depletion, there is a need for the development of alternative materials that can serve the same purpose as conventional plastics. This paper reviews the function of packaging materials and highlights the future potential of the adoption of green materials. Biopolymers have emerged as promising green materials although they still have very low market uptake. Polylactic acid (PLA) has emerged as the most favoured bioplastic. However, it is limited by its high cost and some performance drawbacks. Blending with agricultural waste and natural fillers can result in green composites at low cost, low greenhouse gas emissions, and with improved performance for food packaging applications. The continent of Africa is proposed as a rich source of fibres and fillers that can be sustainably exploited to fabricate green composites in a bid to achieve a circular economy.

Over the years, the world was not paying strict attention to the impact of rapid growth in plastic use. This has led to unprecedented amounts of mixed types of plastic waste entering the environment unmanaged. Packaging plastics account for half of the global total plastic waste. This paper seeks to give an overview of the use, disposal, and regulation of food packaging plastics. Demand for food packaging is on the rise as a result of increasing global demand for food due to population growth. Most of the food packaging are used on-the-go and are single use plastics that are disposed of within a short space of time. The bulk of this plastic waste has found its way into the environment contaminating land, water and the food chain. The food industry is encouraged to reduce, reuse and recycle packaging materials. A wholistic approach to waste management will need to involve all stakeholders working to achieve a circular economy. A robust approach to prevent pollution today rather than handling the waste in the future should be adopted especially in Africa where there is high population growth.

Surface properties of the material can affect the efficiency and behavior of the material when in service. Modifying and tuning these surface properties to meet the specific demand for better performance is feasible and has been vastly employed in a different aspect of life. This can be achieved by coating the surface via deposition of the thin film. This study provides a review of the existing literature of different deposition techniques used for surface modification and coating. The two major areas of interest discussed are physical and chemical vapor deposition techniques, and the area of applications of surface coating was briefly highlighted in this report.

The study of natural fiber-based composites through the use of computational techniques for modelling and optimizing their properties has emerged as a fast-growing approach in recent years. Ecological concerns associated with synthetic fibers have made the utilisation of natural fibers as a reinforcing material in composites a popular approach. Computational techniques have become an important tool in the hands of many researchers to model and analyze the characteristics that influence the mechanical properties of natural fiber composites. This recent trend has led to the development of many advanced computational techniques and software for a profound understanding of the characteristics and performance behavior of composite materials reinforced with natural fibers. The large variations in the characteristics of natural fiber-based composites present a great challenge, which has led to the development of many computational techniques for composite materials analysis. This review seeks to infer, from conventional to contemporary sources, the computational techniques used in modelling, analyzing, and optimizing the mechanical characteristics of natural fiber reinforced composite materials

The use of natural fibres in fibre-reinforced composites comes with drawbacks. They are highly hydrophilic, leading to high moisture absorption and poor interfacial adhesion in matrix-reinforcement bonds. This affects the fibres’ thermal stability as well as mechanical properties, hence limiting their wider application. This paper reviewed different ways in which natural fibres have been treated to improve hydrophobicity, reinforcement-matrix interfacial adhesion and thermal stability. It will investigate. among others, treatments like alkali, acetylation, bleaching, silane, benzoylation and plasma, which have been found to improve fibre hydrophobicity. The literature reviewed showed that these methods work to improve mechanical, chemical, and morphological properties of natural fibres by removing the amorphous surface, thus allowing for more efficient load transfer on the fibre-matrix surface. Studies in the literature found alkali treatment to be the most common surface modification treatment due to its simplicity and effectiveness. However, plasma treatment has emerged due to its lower processing time and chemical consumption. A comparative analysis of other improved properties was also investigated.