Study of compostable materials for the production of transparent food containers

Study of compostable materials for the production of transparent food containers

Giulia Cappiello, Daniele Rocco, Clizia Aversa, Massimiliano Barletta

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Abstract. The aim of this work is to develop a new class of transparent containers for food packaging relying on bioderived polyesters and additives. Usually, transparent containers are manufactured using different plastic materials to achieve mechanical strength, thermal resistance, printability, good visual appearance. Yet, these containers cannot be recycled, being made by multiple polymers. This makes the management of their end-of-life troublesome. In contrast, bioderived polyester can be composted or recycled. In the present study blends of polylactic acid PLA with N,N’-ethylene(bis-stearamide) were processed by a co-rotating twin-screw extruder. The compounds were reprocessed by cast extrusion to make transparent films. Fine dispersion of ethylene(bis-stearamide), EBS, in PLA resulted in increased crystallinity, mechanical strength and thermal resistance, without compromising the transparency of the extruded films. The films were thermoformed to get the containers, whose thermo-mechanical performance were assessed.

Keywords
Biobased Naterials, Extrusion, Thermoforming

Published online 9/5/2023, 9 pages
Copyright © 2023 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA

Citation: Giulia Cappiello, Daniele Rocco, Clizia Aversa, Massimiliano Barletta, Study of compostable materials for the production of transparent food containers, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 35, pp 28-36, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644902714-4

The article was published as article 4 of the book Italian Manufacturing Association Conference

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

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