Polymer Film Separation Method for the Recycling of Polymer Laminated Paper Carton

Polymer laminated paper containers are widely used for food packaging, especially disposable packaging. Recycling such polymer laminated paper containers is currently very difficult because the separation of the polymer from the paper container requires special chemicals and high energy disintegration process. In this study, a simple soaking pretreatment of paper containers with alkali based solution to improve the recovery yield of fibers from paper containers was investigated. After soaking treatment with the solution, the fiber saturation and separation of polymer films by mild disintegration was increased. The unseparated fibers from the polymer film flakes after screening were successfully recovered during the second mild disintegration process, which resulted in an almost 99% recovery of fiber from the paper container. Since the alkali based soaking treatment and the mild disintegration process did not damage and resize the polymer film, the purity of the recycled fiber was close to 100%.