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Lifting the Sustainability of Modified Pet-Based Multilayer Packaging Material with Enhanced Mechanical Recycling Potential and Processing

Sustainability and recyclability are among the main driving forces in the plastics industry, since the pressure on crude oil resources and the environment is increasing. The aim of this research is to develop a sustainable thermoformable multilayer food packaging, based on co-polyesters, which is su...

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Autores principales: Trossaert, Lynn, De Vel, Matthias, Cardon, Ludwig, Edeleva, Mariya
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8747722/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35012219
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym14010196
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author Trossaert, Lynn
De Vel, Matthias
Cardon, Ludwig
Edeleva, Mariya
author_facet Trossaert, Lynn
De Vel, Matthias
Cardon, Ludwig
Edeleva, Mariya
author_sort Trossaert, Lynn
collection PubMed
description Sustainability and recyclability are among the main driving forces in the plastics industry, since the pressure on crude oil resources and the environment is increasing. The aim of this research is to develop a sustainable thermoformable multilayer food packaging, based on co-polyesters, which is suitable for hot-fill applications and allows for recycling in a conventional waste stream. As a polymer material for the outer layer, we selected a modified polyethylene terephthalate (PETM), which is an amorphous co-polyester with a high glass transition temperature (±105 °C) and thus high thermal stability and transparency. The inner layer consists of 1,4-cyclohexylene dimethanol-modified polyethylene terephthalate (PETg), which is allowed to be recycled in a PET stream. Multilayers with a total thickness of 1 mm and a layer thickness distribution of 10/80/10 have been produced. To test the recyclability, sheets which contained 20% and 50% regrind of the initial multilayer in their middle PETg layer have been produced as well. The sheet produced from virgin pellets and the one containing 20% regrind in the middle layer showed no visible haze. This was not the case for the one containing 50% regrind in the middle layer, which was confirmed by haze measurements. The hot-fill test results showed no shrinkage or warpage for the multilayer trays for all temperatures applied, namely 95, 85, 75 and 65 °C. This is a remarkable improvement compared to pure PETg trays, which show a visible deformation after exposure to hot-fill conditions of 95 °C and 85 °C.
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spelling pubmed-87477222022-01-11 Lifting the Sustainability of Modified Pet-Based Multilayer Packaging Material with Enhanced Mechanical Recycling Potential and Processing Trossaert, Lynn De Vel, Matthias Cardon, Ludwig Edeleva, Mariya Polymers (Basel) Article Sustainability and recyclability are among the main driving forces in the plastics industry, since the pressure on crude oil resources and the environment is increasing. The aim of this research is to develop a sustainable thermoformable multilayer food packaging, based on co-polyesters, which is suitable for hot-fill applications and allows for recycling in a conventional waste stream. As a polymer material for the outer layer, we selected a modified polyethylene terephthalate (PETM), which is an amorphous co-polyester with a high glass transition temperature (±105 °C) and thus high thermal stability and transparency. The inner layer consists of 1,4-cyclohexylene dimethanol-modified polyethylene terephthalate (PETg), which is allowed to be recycled in a PET stream. Multilayers with a total thickness of 1 mm and a layer thickness distribution of 10/80/10 have been produced. To test the recyclability, sheets which contained 20% and 50% regrind of the initial multilayer in their middle PETg layer have been produced as well. The sheet produced from virgin pellets and the one containing 20% regrind in the middle layer showed no visible haze. This was not the case for the one containing 50% regrind in the middle layer, which was confirmed by haze measurements. The hot-fill test results showed no shrinkage or warpage for the multilayer trays for all temperatures applied, namely 95, 85, 75 and 65 °C. This is a remarkable improvement compared to pure PETg trays, which show a visible deformation after exposure to hot-fill conditions of 95 °C and 85 °C. MDPI 2022-01-04 /pmc/articles/PMC8747722/ /pubmed/35012219 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym14010196 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Trossaert, Lynn
De Vel, Matthias
Cardon, Ludwig
Edeleva, Mariya
Lifting the Sustainability of Modified Pet-Based Multilayer Packaging Material with Enhanced Mechanical Recycling Potential and Processing
title Lifting the Sustainability of Modified Pet-Based Multilayer Packaging Material with Enhanced Mechanical Recycling Potential and Processing
title_full Lifting the Sustainability of Modified Pet-Based Multilayer Packaging Material with Enhanced Mechanical Recycling Potential and Processing
title_fullStr Lifting the Sustainability of Modified Pet-Based Multilayer Packaging Material with Enhanced Mechanical Recycling Potential and Processing
title_full_unstemmed Lifting the Sustainability of Modified Pet-Based Multilayer Packaging Material with Enhanced Mechanical Recycling Potential and Processing
title_short Lifting the Sustainability of Modified Pet-Based Multilayer Packaging Material with Enhanced Mechanical Recycling Potential and Processing
title_sort lifting the sustainability of modified pet-based multilayer packaging material with enhanced mechanical recycling potential and processing
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8747722/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35012219
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym14010196
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