Separation of Beverage Cartons Layers

The aim of this work was to find a way for easy separation of layers of beverage cartons. The characterizations of separated products were performed by infrared spectroscopy. Three types of solvents were utilized for separation of polyethylene (pentane-1-ol, hexa - ne-1-ol and octane-1-ol). It was found that separated polyethylene from beverage cartons is not pure substance, but contains some amounts of dyes independently of the used solvent. The best solvent for polyethylene dissolution is octane-1-ol, which removed 99.5% of polyethylene contained in carton. The infrared spectra proved that the trace amounts of polyethylene left on the paper as well as on the aluminium surface. Other possible way of separation all layers was suggested.