The effect of some additives to improve water absorption and strengths of paper prepared from old corrugated container

In addition to reducing the consumption of various resources such as water, energy, and wood, paper recycling is constantly increasing in different countries due to less pollution. One of the major defects of the old corrugated container (OCC) is its relatively weak strength, which has limited its use in various sections of the packaging industry. In this study, the effect of using some additives was studied to improve the strengths of OCC to make the top liner of cartons in both wet and dry conditions. OCC was prepared from domestically produced cartons. To determine the performance and optimal amount of additives, corn cationic starch (at 1, 1.4 and, 2%), wet strength resin (at 1, 2 and, 3%), AKD (at 1, 2 and, 3%), and imported tea envelope recycled long fiber paper (at 10, 15 and, 20%) were separately used as additives based on the dry weight of OCC pulp. The handsheets made by laboratory sheet former with a basis weight of 120 g/m2 and then tensile, burst, and tear indices were measured at wet and dry conditions to compare the effect of additives. Also, water absorption was measured by the Cobb test on the test samples. The optimal level of each additive was determined based on the results, then handsheets made from optimal combination treatment including appropriate levels of all additives, and different properties of handsheets were statistically compared. The water absorption of handsheet was decreased by 90% compared to the control by adding AKD. This additive was able to decline the water absorption of handsheet made from OCC to about 20 g/m2 as the suitable range. The greatest increase of wet tensile strength of the handsheet was achieved using 3% wet strength resin compared to the control. The resin maintained the wet tensile, burst, and tear indices of the residual strength of handsheet by 25, 46, and 58%, respectively, compared to dry strengths so it has good performance. The results showed that by adding cationic corn starch and recycled long fiber paper, all the dry strengths of handsheet independently increased compared to the control. The optimal combination treatment was determined according to the independent use of additives in OCC pulp, including 1% cationic starch, 1% AKD, and 3% wet strength resin based on technical-economic considerations. There is no significant difference between dry tensile and burst strength of handsheet using this treatment and 20% recycled long fiber paper, which both means ranked statistically in the same group.  The use of 20% recycled long fiber paper of tea wrapper has significantly improved the dry strength of OCC pulp, but adding 1% cationic corn starch to OCC pulp caused a few increases of dry strength. The wet strength of handsheet was significantly improved by adding 3% wet strength resin whereas 1% AKD significantly decreased the water absorption of the OCC pulp to 14 g/m2. The optimal combination treatment of chemical additives including 1% cationic corn starch, 1% AKD, and 3% wet strength resin improved the wet and dry strength of handsheet made from OCC pulp that could be used for packaging products that should be kept in refrigerator and freezer.