Formaldhyde-Free Acrylic Binder for Constructing Completely Recyclable High Performance Nonwovens - Reuse of Fibers and Binders, 1996 Nonwovens Conference Proceedings

Dr. Karl-Heinz Schumacher & Dr. Robert Rupaner

BASF

Due to more stringent regulations, the costs of disposing of nonwovens waste have increased rapidly over the past few years, and this trend is not expected to change in the fu-ture. Nonwovens waste, such as trim waste, produced in industrial manufacturing processes are affected as well as finished nonwoven articles. We have recently made a contribution to overcome this problem by developing a special acrylic dispersion to make chemically bonded nonwovens completely recyclable. Nonwovens bonded with this new binder disintegrate when they are stirred gently under mildly alkaline conditions, and the fibers and the resulting aqueous binder solution can be separated. The recovered fibers and the dissolved binder can both be returned to the production process, which yields nonwovens with properties comparable to those of the original nonwovens. The recycling process works best with short-fiber nonwovens. A special advantage of the recyclable binder is that it al-lows cellulose containing nonwovens to be recycled in the same way as waste paper, because the binder is separated from the fibers during deinking. This opens the door for ecological marketing strategies. The recyclable binder performs well in many different applications. It is suitable for a very broad spectrum of products, including nonwovens for medical and hygiene applications.