Extraction of plastic and aluminum foil from beverage cartons with biological processes

Abstract

Extraction of plastic and aluminum foil from beverage cartons with biological processes is one environmentally friendly approach that is appropriated for paper recycling. The other remained parts including plastic and foils can thus be utilized. This research aimed to improve the capability in digestion of cellulose paper of microbes, isolated and screen from fruit, durian and jackfruit, in degradation of beverage cartons. In the small scale processes, reducing sugar indicating the efficiency of the degradation process of the boxes was released from the hydrolysis of paper and determined by biochemical method of Benedict test. The controls of alkali and water immersion were utilized for these experiments. In the medium and large scale digestion processes, the results showed that microorganisms helped separate sheet papers from the plastic and aluminum foils shortly in 14 days after boiling in water for 10 min. The bacteria digestion were well adapted within 14 days, and prolonged their high degradability until 28 days. They could degrade the cellulose components better than the fungi with the separation efficiency of 70 percent and 66 percent, respectively. Therefore, from overall, the biodegradation process of microorganisms have a high potential in digestion of various paper products for recycling and can be applied in industrial applications.