Degradation, Stabilization, and Recycling of Packaging Materials

Practical guidance to sustainable packaging and its challenges with analysis of various packaging materials and their interactions with different environments

Degradation, Stabilization, and Recycling of Packaging Materials analyzes packaging materials and their interactions with different environments, discussing the degradation processes of different materials like plastics, wood, paper, glass, and metal, providing specific strategies to address these degradation processes, and exploring solid waste management, recent developments in recycling, and the principles of eco-friendly packaging design.

Organized into two parts, the first section of this book provides a comprehensive examination of how environmental factors such as heat, shear, light, air, packaged products, and stress affect packaging materials, focusing on the chemistry of their deterioration and stabilization methods. The second section explores solid waste management, recent developments in recycling, and key principles of eco-friendly packaging design, culminating in an extensive discussion of legal and regulatory aspects.

The book includes case studies and problem sets in each chapter, with solutions to the problems in an appendix in the back of the book.

Written by a team of highly qualified authors, Degradation, Stabilization, and Recycling of Packaging Materials includes discussion on:

• Structure of tinplate and tin-free steel, corrosion in lacquered cans, and effects of producing, processing, and storing metals
• Recyclable versus repulpable paper, uses of recycled papers, wet-strength papers, non-wood fibers as paper sources, and contamination issues with paper recycling
• Plastic recycling rates, plastic scrap exports in the US and abroad, chemical versus mechanical plastic recycling, hydrocracking of plastics, and PE and PET recycling
• Lightweight glass bottles, strategies to modify or strengthen glass, and the real recyclability of glass

Presenting advanced technical knowledge that demystifies the sustainable packaging landscape Degradation, Stabilization, and Recycling of Packaging Materials is a critical resource for researchers, students, and industry professionals in the field of materials science and packaging to evaluate challenges related to solid waste and devise effective disposal strategies.