Economical chemical recycling of complex PET waste in the form of active packaging material
Abstract
Since millions of tons of packaging material cannot be recycled in conventional ways, most
of it ends up in landfills or even dumped into the natural environment. The researched methods
of chemical depolymerization therefore open a new perspective for the recycling of various PET
materials, which are especially important for packaging. Food preservative packaging materials
made from PET plastics are complex, and their wastes are often contaminated, so there are no
sophisticated solutions for them in the recycling industry. After integrating the biopolymer chitosan,
which is derived from natural chitin, as an active surface additive in PET materials, we discovered
that it not only enriches the packaging material as a microbial inhibitor to reduce the bacteria
Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, thus extending the shelf life of the contained food, but also
enables economical chemical recycling by alkaline or neutral hydrolysis, which is an environmentally
friendly process. Alkaline hydrolysis at a high temperature and pressure completely depolymerizes
chitosan-coated PET packaging materials into pure terephthalic acid and charcoal. The products
were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, proton nuclear magnetic resonance
spectroscopy, and elemental analysis. The resulting reusable material represents raw materials
in chemical, plastic, textile, and other industries, in addition to the antimicrobial function and
recyclability itself.
Keywords
hitozan;aktivna embalaža;recikliranje;ponovna uporaba;chitosan;active packaging;PET;recycling;reusability;
Data
| Language: | English |
|---|---|
| Year of publishing: | 2022 |
| Typology: | 1.01 - Original Scientific Article |
| Organization: | UM FS - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering |
| Publisher: | MDPI AG |
| UDC: | 678:577 |
| COBISS: |
119122947
|
| ISSN: | 2073-4360 |
| Views: | 0 |
| Downloads: | 5 |
| Average score: | 0 (0 votes) |
| Metadata: |
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Other data
| Secondary language: | Slovenian |
|---|---|
| Secondary keywords: | hitozan;aktivna embalaža;recikliranje;ponovna uporaba; |
| Type (COBISS): | Article |
| Pages: | str. 1-15 |
| Volume: | ǂVol. ǂ14 |
| Issue: | ǂiss. ǂ16 (3244) |
| Chronology: | Aug. 2022 |
| DOI: | 10.3390/polym14163244 |
| ID: | 26112816 |
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