In Italy, the organic fraction is the most relevant among the source separated materials collected with municipal solid waste. In addition to food waste and garden waste, the amount of cellulosic fractions (2.5%) is not negligible. This study aims at evaluating the disintegration level in aerobic conditions of four paper-based packaging for food delivery EN 13432:2002 certified: two corrugated cardboard boxes, one cartonboard box coupled with a polylactic acid (PLA) film and a cartonboard box (with a lid) subjected to a barrier treatment for fats and humidity. The anaerobic degradability of two of the packaging was also investigated: one of the boxes made of paper only and the one made of paper with a PLA film were evaluated in biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests. When subjected to composting, the four boxes showed different behaviours. After four weeks, the two boxes made of paper only were completely disintegrated and indistinguishable from the compost. On the contrary, the cartonboard box with the PLA film and the box subjected to the barrier treatment reached a good level of disintegration only after eight and twelve weeks respectively. Overall, all the boxes effectively disintegrated within the test duration reported by the applied technical standard (EN 14045:2003) and consistently with the average durations of the industrial composting processes. However, more and more frequently, industrial-scale plants shorten the duration of their processes, which could be problematic for items with bioplastic films or barrier treatments. As regards the anaerobic environment, the paper only box showed higher degradability in the BMP tests: the methane production of the box with the PLA film was 25% lower than that of the box in paper only. These differences are confirmed by examining the anaerobic degradability, equal to 72% for the box in paper and PLA and 92% for the box in paper only, that showed the same anaerobic degradability of food waste.
La frazione organica è in Italia la più rilevante tra i materiali raccolti per via differenziata. In aggiunta al rifiuto alimentare e al verde, si rileva anche la presenza di frazioni cellulosiche (2,5%). Questo studio si pone l’obiettivo di valutare in primo luogo la disintegrazione in condizioni aerobiche di quattro imballaggi a base carta certificati EN 13432:2002 e utilizzati per confezionare il cibo d’asporto: due vaschette in cartoncino ondulato, una in cartoncino con accoppiato un film in acido polilattico (PLA) e una vaschetta con coperchio realizzati in cartoncino sottoposto a un trattamento barriera per grassi e umidità. È stata inoltre indagata la degradabilità in condizioni anaerobiche, tramite prove di biometanazione (BMP), di due degli imballaggi esaminati: una delle vaschette realizzate in sola carta e quella realizzata in carta con un film in PLA. Sottoposte a compostaggio, le quattro vaschette hanno mostrato comportamenti differenti. Dopo quattro settimane le due vaschette realizzate in sola carta sono risultate completamente disintegrate e indistinguibili dal compost. Al contrario, la vaschetta in cartoncino con accoppiato il film in PLA e la vaschetta sottoposta al trattamento barriera hanno raggiunto un buon livello di disintegrazione rispettivamente dopo otto e dodici settimane. Complessivamente, tutte le vaschette analizzate si sono disintegrate efficacemente entro il termine previsto dallo standard tecnico considerato per la prova (EN 14045:2003) e coerentemente con le durate medie del processo di compostaggio industriale. Tuttavia, sempre più frequentemente, si riscontrano processi a scala industriale di durata inferiore, che potrebbero risultare problematici per vaschette con film in bioplastica o trattamenti barriera. Parallelamente, la vaschetta in sola carta ha mostrato una più elevata degradabilità nelle prove di BMP. La produzione di metano della vaschetta con il film in PLA è risultata invece inferiore del 25% rispetto a quella della vaschetta in sola carta. Tali differenze sono confermate esaminando le degradabilità anaerobiche pari al 72% (vaschetta in carta e PLA) e 92% (vaschetta in sola carta), quest’ultima analoga a quella ottenuta per il rifiuto alimentare.
Analisi sperimentale sulla degradazione in condizioni aerobiche e anaerobiche di vaschette a base carta per il cibo d'asporto
Fava, Floriana
2021/2022
Abstract
In Italy, the organic fraction is the most relevant among the source separated materials collected with municipal solid waste. In addition to food waste and garden waste, the amount of cellulosic fractions (2.5%) is not negligible. This study aims at evaluating the disintegration level in aerobic conditions of four paper-based packaging for food delivery EN 13432:2002 certified: two corrugated cardboard boxes, one cartonboard box coupled with a polylactic acid (PLA) film and a cartonboard box (with a lid) subjected to a barrier treatment for fats and humidity. The anaerobic degradability of two of the packaging was also investigated: one of the boxes made of paper only and the one made of paper with a PLA film were evaluated in biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests. When subjected to composting, the four boxes showed different behaviours. After four weeks, the two boxes made of paper only were completely disintegrated and indistinguishable from the compost. On the contrary, the cartonboard box with the PLA film and the box subjected to the barrier treatment reached a good level of disintegration only after eight and twelve weeks respectively. Overall, all the boxes effectively disintegrated within the test duration reported by the applied technical standard (EN 14045:2003) and consistently with the average durations of the industrial composting processes. However, more and more frequently, industrial-scale plants shorten the duration of their processes, which could be problematic for items with bioplastic films or barrier treatments. As regards the anaerobic environment, the paper only box showed higher degradability in the BMP tests: the methane production of the box with the PLA film was 25% lower than that of the box in paper only. These differences are confirmed by examining the anaerobic degradability, equal to 72% for the box in paper and PLA and 92% for the box in paper only, that showed the same anaerobic degradability of food waste.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/199076