Analysis of Mechanical Properties of EVOH/LDPE Films Produced with Waste EVOH and LDPE

Abstract

The importance of plastic materials continues to develop more and more every year from past to present. As important as the plastics used in almost every area of life are, it is equally important to keep these materials in the environmental cycle. Since 1970, the use and consumption of plastic has increased almost 10 times. A large share of the use of these plastics occurs in the flexible packaging sector. In the multi-layer films used on flexible packaging in the packaging industry, one of the most important issues of the future is the crisis of raw materials, and the other is recycling and sustainability. In this study, it is aimed to evaluate the low density polyethylene/ poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol)/low polyethylene (LDPE/EVOH/LDPE) structured flexible packaging film waste produced by multilayer blown extrusion method within the same LDPE/EVOH/LDPE flexible packaging film and to examine the mechanical property changes of the material. Sustainable environment and economy, reducing the cost of raw materials, obtaining approximately similar mechanical properties are among the objectives of the study. The wastes released from the LDPE/EVOH/LDPE film were granulated in a single screw extruder. Then, the amount of these waste EVOH granules was 5%, 10%, 20% and 25% by weight in the total film, and their production was carried out with reference to the pure EVOH film in a 7-layer blown film extruder. Samples were taken from the films produced in 50µm thickness in accordance with the standards. Tensile test, tear test, puncture resistance test, sealing force test, shrinkage tests were performed. According to the results of the tests, analyzes on the use of scrap EVOH were concluded.