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Recently, different health concern arisen on the nature of packages used for food and water products meant for human consumption to ascertain and monitor its safety through the assessment of its potential health risk (Cai et al. 2003). Phthalates are synthetic chemicals in form of additives incorporated into packaging materials during production to modify their properties thereby improving its toughness and flexibility (Gevao et al. 2013; Cincotta et al. 2018). They are an important class of endocrine disruptors which affect multiple endpoints and exist as a constellation by constituting a group of health related symptoms. This effect are due to phthalate esters incorporation during plastic production (Chang et al. 2017). Chemically, phthalates are covalently bound to the polymeric matrixes in which they are incorporated (Rusyn et al. 2012). As a result of this, they easily migrate from the polymer matrix either to the environment during production or to the content of the container they are used to package and their leaching increases over time thereby causing contamination of the content (Keresztes et al. 2013; Al-Saleh et al. 2011). Also, unsuitable storage conditions like degradation and oxidation could result in increase in the rate of migration of the phthalate compounds into the content of the container (Bach et al. 2012; Silano and Silano 2017).
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The use of plastics and especially polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in juice packaging is increased due to the low raw material’s cost and its functional advantages, such as the excellent mechanical and optical properties (Falguera and Ibarz, 2014; Ramos et al., 2015). However, plastics’ variable permeability to light, gases and low molecular weight molecules (Ramos et al., 2015) along with the poor protection of the quality of oxygensensitive beverages over long periods are major concerns for their use in juices (Ros-Chumillas et al., 2007). Nowadays consumers’ demand for safer products with higher quality lead the industrial packaging sector to face some remarkable advances (Ramos et al., 2015). One of them is Tetra Pak multilayer packaging, which is produced by laminating six layers of stiff paper (75% of the packaging mass), low density polyethylene (LDPE) (20%) and aluminium foil (Al) (5%). The combination of materials results in the added advantage of properties from each individual material and specifically the rigid shape of paper, the outstanding barrier properties against light, water vapour, oxygen and microorganisms of Al and the layer bonding function of LDPE. Its low weight and cost and the extension of juice shelf life are among the advantages of Tetra Pak multilayer packaging. However, the recycling of Tetra Pak still remains a challenge (Zawadiak, 2017). Nowadays, PET and Tetra Pak packaging systems present the most common options for the packaging of fruit juice products.
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Multilayer aseptic packaging is made of paperboard in a percentage of approximately 75%; therefore, it can be used as a source for extracting cellulose nanocrystals as a strategy for valuing this waste. The paperboard used in the manufacture of these multilayer packaging, basically composed of cellulose in addition to hemicellulose, lignin, binders/adhesives, and additives from papermaking, is a waste of vast availability. Diop and Lavoie obtained cellulose nanocrystals from Tetra Pak packaging and used four chemical treatment steps to delignify and prepare the nanocellulose, in addition to the separation step of polyethylene and aluminum cardboard. There was another study with Tetra Pak packaging, done by Xing et al., in which the researchers manually separated the polyethylene and aluminum from paperboard, in addition to using a chemical pre-treatment in the packaging fibers with toluene and ethanol for 20 h before submitting samples to delignification and acid hydrolysis to obtain cellulose nanocrystals.
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Although a wide range of contributions to Tetra Pak® recycling can be found in the specialized literature, only the hydro-pulping scheme to recover the cellulose fraction is usually considered as a mature technology, the identification and optimization of a protocol for the recycling of this kind of waste are not resolved. The main objective of this work is to establish a method of separation of materials from Tetra Pakwaste to obtain products for use as raw material, fuel, or other purposes. The specific objectives are: (i) analyze the feasibility of hydrothermal treatment for the production of a solid fuel (hydrochar) and a solid fraction formed by polyethylene and aluminum, called composite, (ii) analyze a new separation process of the composite components obtained from the previous method by using spent olive oil which can also be considered as a sustainable and low-cost process and (iii) optimize the operating conditions of the pyrolysis process for the production of a solid (char) and high purity aluminum.
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The development of composite materials for the active food packaging field has recently been explored to answer the consumers’ concerns with the safety and quality of food products, the health, and the environment. Besides the handling and storage conditions, an active food packaging material can enable to preserve the food product, resulting in the extension of its shelf-life. Therefore, following the trend of an ecofriendly food packaging material with active functionalities, the recent research has driven efforts to produce bio-based plastics targeting the simultaneous use of biopolymers and active agents. Biopolymers, including polysaccharides, proteins, and lipids, have been regarded as more sustainable materials because they are natural, came from renewable resources and may be biodegradable and compostable, satisfying the current environmental challenges by solving the waste disposal problems to some extent. Moreover, they can be chemically functionalized and blended with other biodegradable polymers, plasticizers, compatibilizers, and/or active fillers to improve their performance, being good alternatives the petroleum-based polymers in a diversity of applications, from food packaging to biomedical fields.