Finnish team develops new cardboard recycling process

Hygiene and home care products are among the items that can be manufactured from the biodegradable non-wovens.

The manufacturing costs of cardboard-based non-wovens are said to be around 20 per cent lower than for non-wovens produced from wood raw materials.

Non-wovens are essentially consumer goods that, once used, end up in a landfill site. In metropolitan areas alone, an estimated 10,000 tonnes of nappies and sanitary towels are disposed of each year. The principle raw material in non-wovens manufacture is biologically non-degradable polyester. Up until to now, market entry for bio-based non-wovens derived from wood has stalled because of prohibitive production costs.

‘Now for the first time we can make use of recycled paper and cardboard as a non-wovens raw material,’ said Ali Harlin, a Research Professor at VTT. ‘The new process means that bio-based non-wovens are now more competitive on price in comparison with plastic-based products.

‘The manufacturing costs of cardboard-based non-wovens are around 20 per cent lower than for non-wovens produced from wood raw materials. New business opportunities should open up fairly rapidly, since the technology required for manufacturing non-wovens from recycled materials is already in place.’