Mechanical and chemical processing of multilayer materials as a part of recycling process

Abstract

Unarguably light weight and multiple functionalities of multilayer material are the prime reason for its increasing market in the packaging industry. Nevertheless, considering circular economy into consideration it is challenging task to recover multilayer materials from the waste stream. LUT University intends to study and investigate the viability of recycling post-consumer multilayered packaging waste and present the current pathways for its processing methods.

Starting with an overview on possible composition of polymers in multilayer materials, this thesis highlights the available processing technique and compare the properties of recycled materials with the virgin ones. The section on processing of multilayer materials contains an overview of sorting technique, different classified groups of polymers and possible test to evaluate mechanical performances of recycled materials. The results from the test is then utilized to compare the performance and content of recycled multilayer materials.

Additionally, this research discusses about the difficulty and main challenges occurred during the processing of multilayer materials, thus giving an overall suggestion to perform future research work.