Aluminum recovery from waste Pharmacuetical Blister packages.

Abstract

Waste pharmaceutical blister packages (WPBs) are a source of solid waste in Uganda due to increased pharmaceutical industries and drug importation, which are composed of plastics and aluminum, therefore acting as a potential source for secondary aluminum. The structure of WPBs makes the recycling of aluminum notably more complex than typical aluminum recycling. Currently in Uganda, WBPs are disposed of as municipal solid waste; thus, aluminum is lost from the circulation during incineration. In this work, two types of WPBs were studied, each with two plastic layers and a metallic layer. Delamination of WPBs to separate aluminum and plastic(s) was investigated by using a solution of organic solvents. The effects of acetone to isopropanol ratio (0–100 vol.%) and different types of WPBs on delamination behavior were investigated. The results suggested that aluminum separation and recovery from WPBs is 100% at optimum conditions (50v/v% and 40OC) and it was found that the aluminum content was 85.61µg/g in the recovered aluminum foil which was in response with previous literature. Moreover, an overall indicative flow sheet for recovering and post-processing of segregated aluminum from the plastic was also suggested.