Biodegradation and recycling potential of barrier coated paperboards

Four commercial barrier coated boards (i.e., internally-sized uncoated board, one-side polyethylene coated board, double-side polyethylene coated board, and multilayer laminated board) were examined for biodegradation using a soil burial approach on a laboratory scale. It was observed that the base-boards were fully biodegradable in a matter of weeks or months, and the degradation process could be accelerated either by sample size modification or enrichment of the soil microbial population. Freezing pretreatment of boards or the fiber directionality of boards had no influence on the rate of degradation. The boards were also found to be recyclable following a simple procedure of re-slushing and screening. The base-boards became almost fully separated from the polyethylene coated material without any special pretreatment.