Influência da inserção de material reciclado nas propriedades mecânicas de filmes poliméricos para embalagens flexíveis

Abstract

The growing concern about the environment has left the strictly academic field and is now being dealt with on a day-to-day basis by companies. The plastic packaging industries, the third generation of the petrochemical chain, are coming under increasing pressure to take responsibility for the waste they generate, either directly through their production or indirectly through the waste generated by their customers. In this sense, recycling polymer waste can not only reduce the environmental impact of improper disposal or reduce the extraction of raw materials from fossil sources, but also have a positive impact from a social point of view, as it creates jobs and other benefits. This study evaluated the influence of the content of recycled material incorporated into flexible packaging produced by a large multinational company in the cities of Londrina-PR and Feliz-RS, which was recycled both by outsourced companies and by the company itself. To this end, mechanical tests were carried out on elastic modulus, tensile strength, elongation, puncture force and tear propagation. Analysis was then carried out to identify how the recycled material content affected the properties evaluated. The proposed materials showed a decrease in tensile strength, tear propagation and perforation, but still showed satisfactory results, pointing to possibilities for application in flexible films.