ENVIRONMENTAL POSSIBILITIES OF UTILIZING RECYCLED PLASTICS AS FOOD CONTACT MATERIALS

Abstract

Using recycled plastics as food contact materials can significantly reduce environmental impacts and enhance environmental benefits to nature. Environmental impact categories of global warming potential, abiotic depletion and acidification were evaluated for food packages made from recycled plastics and compared with their respective virgin alternatives. The properties of the recycled and virgin plastic components were estimated from the literature. The results indicate that food packages made of recycled plastic can significantly reduce global warming and resource consumption. Food packages made from virgin plastics are much more energy and material-intensive compared to their recycled components. Mechanical recycling of plastic food packages displayed the best performance among other recycling technologies. PET (polyethylene terephthalate) is the most promising polymer to use as a recycled component for food contact material. Polystyrene (PS) is also a low diffusive polymer, therefore a promising candidate which can be utilized in the near future in recycled food packaging. However, food contact material production using recycled plastics has been limited due to the migration of hazardous chemicals to the contacted foods.