Recycling of Aseptic Packaging Container for Paper Board Applications - A Laboratory Study

High board and packaging material demands due to increased internet sales require the board and packaging manufacturing industry to increase production capabilities. Legislature actions require the utilization of environmentally friendly packaging materials as well as upgrade existing and implement new manufacturing processes that are sustainable. Liquid containerboard packaging materials is considered a sustainable packaging material and utilized in the beverage, food, and pharmaceutical industry.

In this study, techniques to recycle used beverage cartons were investigated. It aims to find the optimum conditions to pulp the aseptic package containers and obtain maximum fibers from pulping. The extracted pulp may be used as a raw material to produce carton boards, card boxes, and recycled paper. Recycling of aseptic packaging materials involves the mechanical separation of the paper fibers from the polyethylene and or aluminum layers by chemical and non-chemical methods. Results indicated that the use of chemicals gives a high yield of paper fibers of 58% using the chemical Oxone and 63% using Sodium Hypochlorite, for the non-chemical method obtained a yield of 72% and a comparison of paper properties for each pulping method.