TY - CONF

T1 - Comprehensive Characterisation of Lightweight Packaging Waste to improve Recycling

AU - Kuhn, Nikolai Emanuel

AU - Koinig, Gerald

AU - Tischberger-Aldrian, Alexia

PY - 2023/10

Y1 - 2023/10

N2 - Lightweight packaging waste is a resource that is receiving increasing attention from society, politics, and industry. Describing its compositionas accurately as possible has always been the subject of scientific investigations. Whereas in the past the focus of investigations was on information about the materials used, in the context of a circular economy new characteristics such as multilayer, labelling, contaminations or its use as food packaging is becoming relevant. We show the first results of a characterisation campaign of lightweight packaging waste that is currently being carried out in Austria. In this campaign, 1,000 L samples are taken and analysed every two months at three locations within Styria (sparsely populated, intermediate density, densely populated). Furthermore, a total of six external validation samples are taken from similarly populated areas in other regions of Austria to ensure transferability of the results to the entire country. We show the characterisation results of three differently densely populated districts of the second largest city in the country, Graz. So far, about 100 kg of light packaging waste have been characterised. Within the 2D fraction, the materials PE (45%), PP (20%), paper and cardboard (8%) and multi-material films (25%) dominate by mass. The 3D fraction, on the other hand, is dominated by PET (40%), PP (17%), beverage cartons (15%) and PE (11%) by mass. In terms of colour distribution, it is noticeable that overall transparent (50%) and white (25%) packaging is used most frequently. The share of shrink and stretch film within the 2D fraction amountsto 5% each; the share of highly labelled products (label takes up more than 75% of the outer packaging surface) is less than 10%. In the future, we are particularly interested in combining several characteristics to identify potential new target fractions for material recovery facilities to induce highquality recycling.

AB - Lightweight packaging waste is a resource that is receiving increasing attention from society, politics, and industry. Describing its compositionas accurately as possible has always been the subject of scientific investigations. Whereas in the past the focus of investigations was on information about the materials used, in the context of a circular economy new characteristics such as multilayer, labelling, contaminations or its use as food packaging is becoming relevant. We show the first results of a characterisation campaign of lightweight packaging waste that is currently being carried out in Austria. In this campaign, 1,000 L samples are taken and analysed every two months at three locations within Styria (sparsely populated, intermediate density, densely populated). Furthermore, a total of six external validation samples are taken from similarly populated areas in other regions of Austria to ensure transferability of the results to the entire country. We show the characterisation results of three differently densely populated districts of the second largest city in the country, Graz. So far, about 100 kg of light packaging waste have been characterised. Within the 2D fraction, the materials PE (45%), PP (20%), paper and cardboard (8%) and multi-material films (25%) dominate by mass. The 3D fraction, on the other hand, is dominated by PET (40%), PP (17%), beverage cartons (15%) and PE (11%) by mass. In terms of colour distribution, it is noticeable that overall transparent (50%) and white (25%) packaging is used most frequently. The share of shrink and stretch film within the 2D fraction amountsto 5% each; the share of highly labelled products (label takes up more than 75% of the outer packaging surface) is less than 10%. In the future, we are particularly interested in combining several characteristics to identify potential new target fractions for material recovery facilities to induce highquality recycling.

KW - Circular Economy

KW - Recycling

KW - Waste characterisation

KW - Lightweight packaging waste

UR - https://www.sardiniasymposium.it/en/symposium-proceedings

M3 - Paper

T2 - Sardinia 2023 - 19th International Symposium on Waste Management and Sustainable Landfilling

Y2 - 9 October 2023 through 13 October 2023

ER -