Milk pouches are difficult to recycle; how new tech turns them into furniture, Pg14

Key Highlights:

• Indian households generate an estimated 100-120 million plastic milk pouches daily, which are challenging to recycle.
• The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has developed a new technology to transform polyethylene milk pouches into durable outdoor furniture.
• This IISc innovation blends polyethylene with polypropylene, utilizing vitrimers to create a structurally strong recycled material.
• Unified Intelligence, a Bengaluru-based company, converts multi-layer plastics into robust building materials through a process called thermo-fusion.

Detailed Insights:

• Milk pouches are often discarded on roadsides or in bins because their low value discourages ragpickers, unlike plastic bottles.
• The inner layers of milk pouches, designed to block UV light and extend shelf life, are not desired by conventional recycling companies.
• The IISc technology overcomes the molecular incompatibility of polyethylene and polypropylene by incorporating vitrimers during the blending process.
• The new material developed by IISc can be 3D-printed into various items, including podiums and outdoor benches.
• Unified Intelligence processes shredded multi-layer plastics using thermo-fusion to create panels, which have been used for interior walls at Bengaluru Airport’s Terminal 1.
• Recycled building materials offer benefits such as enhanced strength, faster construction times, and reduced water consumption compared to traditional methods.
• A significant challenge for these innovative building materials is the lack of established basic standards, necessitating direct lab test certifications for properties like fire resistance.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Polyethylene: A common thermoplastic polymer widely used in packaging, including milk pouches.
• Polypropylene: A robust thermoplastic polymer used in containers for oil, shampoo, and other products.
• Vitrimers: A class of polymers that can be reprocessed like thermoplastics but maintain cross-linked network properties.
• Multi-layer plastic: Packaging material composed of several different plastic layers, making recycling complex.
• Thermo-fusion: A process that uses heat to melt and bond plastic materials together, often used in recycling.