Caracterização das cápsulas de café pós-consumo com vista à sua eventual reciclagem pela indústria têxtil

Abstract

The espresso coffee machines fed by capsules made coffee preparation much quicker and more practical. However, waste from the capsules’ disposal is generated and not reused or recycled as it should, opposing to its disposal in landfills. Therefore, the use of coffee capsules by the textile industry may be a potential recycling route, giving an adequate destination for these residues. For this purpose, the characterization of the capsules by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermogravimetric were performed. By these techniques, the presence of polypropylene could be verified, but they were not efficient in the identification of the other layers. Therefore, it was suggested to use other techniques for characterization, which together with the information already obtained, make it possible to recycle the coffee capsules to obtain textile filaments.