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Source publication
Packaging is one of the biggest sectors in the world and the use of aluminium is widespread in the packaging industry. Pharmaceutical blister packages generate a significant amount of solid waste, typically containing plastics and aluminium as thin layers. Since these packages have a complex structure with multiple layers, they are hard to recycle....
Citations
... En la búsqueda de soluciones, se han realizado estudios sobre el procesamiento de empaques de aluminio, tereftalato de polietileno (PET) y PP, que han demostrado resultados prometedores en la reducción de la permeabilidad al oxígeno (Kim et al., 2020;Lorini et al., 2018). Sin embargo, Çapkın & Gökelma (2023) señalan que los empaques laminados con aluminio generan un alto impacto ambiental debido a las dificultades para separar sus capas durante el reciclaje, debido a que no son materiales misibles dentro de procesos de reciclaje, separación y posterior pelletizado de resinas postcosumo (PCR). ...
El estudio de los materiales de empaques ha adquirido una creciente importancia, especialmente en el envasado de alimentos sensibles al oxígeno, por lo cual se han implementado diversas tecnologías para mejorar las propiedades de barrera contra el oxígeno, con el objetivo de prolongar la vida útil de los productos. En este contexto, durante esta investigación se propuso evaluar la tasa de transmisión de oxígeno (OTR) en envases fabricados mediante moldeo por inyección, a través de diferentes tipos de polipropileno (PP). El estudio se llevó a cabo con la medición de la OTR en los diferentes tipos de envases mediante un analizador por fluorescencia óptica, exponiendo los envases a una corriente de nitrógeno en un lado y a una de oxígeno puro en el otro lado. Los resultados revelaron 44 % mayor permeabilidad en contenedores que utilizaron tapas fabricadas con copolímero de polipropileno random (CPPR) y las tarrinas fabricadas con copolímero de polipropileno en bloques (CPPB), en comparación con las tarrinas y tapas que emplearon solo CPPB. Estos hallazgos indican que el tipo de material utilizado influye significativamente en la OTR, lo cual impacta en el rendimiento de los productos envasados. Los resultados proporcionan información relevante para el desarrollo de empaques más eficientes en términos de barrera de oxígeno, lo que contribuye a garantizar la calidad y la vida útil de los productos envasados.
... They must not alter the ingredients of the drug and the drug must not be adsorbed to the package material [3,4]. Alveoli usually consist of two aluminum foils or an aluminum and a plastic foil or plastic multilayer laminates joined together and welded with adhesive; therefore, they consist of composite materials that are difficult to separate and reuse [5,6]. For this reason, and because the medications taken, as well as any not taken, end up in waste, all blister cards are currently disposable materials and their volume should be minimized as much as possible. ...
Purpose
In Europe, most medicines are taken orally and primarily packaged as single solid oral dosage forms (SODF) in blister chambers (alveoli) arranged on blister cards. Blister cards are constructed as multilayer laminates of aluminum (Al) foils and/or various plastic polymers bonded together, forming the alveoli, which are separated by more or less large gaps. We calculated the amount of packaging material (and thus waste) generated annually for the packaging of the most commonly prescribed SODF in Germany and estimated how much waste could be saved by rearranging the alveoli.
Methods
For this purpose, we analysed the SODF of the 50 most frequently prescribed medicines that were packaged in alveoli (N = 45; 13 of aluminum-aluminum blisters, 32 of mixed materials), measured and weighed their packaging material and content, calculated the annual amount of waste produced from them, and estimated how much waste could be saved if the alveoli were optimally positioned on the blister cards. In addition, we examined the variability of the blister packaging of eight groups of commonly prescribed generics of the same strength.
Results
Detailed analysis of the blister cards revealed that most of the material (69%) was used for the space between blisters and that aluminum-aluminum alveoli were more than four times larger than the packaged SODF. The (conservatively) estimated annual amount of composite waste generated for the primary packaging of these SODF was 3868 t (and extrapolated to the entire German pharmaceutical market 8533 t), of which an optimized arrangement of the blister chambers, i.e., a 2-mm sealing area around each alveolus and the arrangement of the SODF in 2 rows, would save approximately 37%.
Conclusion
Considering that other ecological strategies are not yet mature, the optimal arrangement of blister chambers would be a captivatingly simple and, above all, immediately implementable strategy to avoid large amounts of avoidable waste.
Al-rich waste pharmaceutical blisters (WPBs) have a multi-layer structure that contains aluminum and polymer-based fractions. Although the aluminum mass in WPBs is less than typical aluminum packaging products such as beverage cans, establishing a feasible recycling procedure is possible by separating the fractions to recover both metal and plastic. Hydrometallurgical methods are mostly preferred for the separation of aluminum and plastic in multi-layered structures. This work reports the characterization of Al-rich WPBs and the separation behavior of aluminum and plastic layers. The effects of hydrochloric acid, acetic acid, formic acid, sulfuric acid, ethanol, acetone, and organic solvent (benzene–ethanol–water) on the separation behavior of layers were studied at different temperatures. Furthermore, the recycling yield of the aluminum fraction was experimentally assessed.
