Effect colorants on content of heavy metals in recycled board

16 March 2017

Researchers at the Istanbul University of Forest Faculty in Turkey aimed to determine the amounts and also identify the sources of heavy metals such as Pb, Cd, Zn, Ni, and Cu contained in recycled testliner and fluting, which are main products used in production of corrugated cardboard.
Mean values of 2.6 mg/kg Pb (lead), 2.8 mg/kg Zn (zinc), 0.094 mg/kg Cd (cadmium), 1.8 mg/kg Ni (nickel), and 25.4 mg/kg Cu (copper) were detected in test liner and fluting papers. The main sources of heavy metals are colorants, mainly consisting of conventional paint and pigments as well as spot and Pantone Matching System (PMS) colorants. An article about the research is published in BioResources.
Click here for the article (287 kB).
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