Abstract

• Laboratory wastewater and dye wastewater cause damage to the environment if released without proper treatment. According to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), water recovery from wastewater treatment has been emphasized for decades. In this study, ecofriendly adsorbents were prepared from disposable bamboo chopsticks waste to remove contaminants from laboratory and dye wastewater. Disposable bamboo chopsticks waste was collected from one of the restaurants around University of Magway. The adsorbents were prepared at 300 ℃ and 500 ℃, respectively. For comparison, commercial activate carbon was used. The crystal structure of adsorbents was analyzed by X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to observe morphology of the adsorbents. Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (EDXRF) was used to study the elemental compositions of the adsorbents, initial and residual laboratory wastewater as well as dye wastewater. The dye removal percentages of prepared ecofriendly adsorbents were analyzed by ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer (UV-vis). The results showed that the bamboo-based adsorbent prepared at 500 ℃ and commercial activated carbon performed higher removal in copper and zinc from laboratory wastewater, titanium, green and yellow colours from screen printing dye wastewater as well as methylene blue.