Method for recovering constituent members from used absorbent article
AssigneeUnicharm Corporation
InventorsTakayoshi Konishi, Toshio Hiraoka, Noritomo Kameda
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Abstract
A method of recovering structural members from a used absorbent article comprising a front sheet, a back sheet and an absorbent body between the front sheet and the back sheet, wherein at least one of the front sheet and the back sheet includes a film, and wherein the absorbent body includes an absorbent body material, may include swelling the used absorbent article with water, applying a physical shock to and disintegrating the swelled used absorbent article into at least the film and the absorbent body material, and separating the film and the absorbent body material.
Claims16
A method of recovering structural members from a used absorbent article comprising a front sheet, a back sheet, and an absorbent body between the front sheet and the back sheet, wherein at least one of the front sheet and the back sheet comprises a film, and wherein the absorbent body comprises an absorbent body material including a superabsorbent polymer and pulp fibers, the method comprising:
- swelling the used absorbent article with water;
- applying a physical shock to and disintegrating the swelled used absorbent article into at least the film and the absorbent body material;
- inactivating the superabsorbent polymer in an acidic aqueous solution containing an inactivating agent;
- and
- after the inactivating of the superabsorbent polymer, separating the film and the absorbent body material,
- wherein in the separating of the film and the absorbent body material, the film is separated from a mixture containing the pulp fibers, the inactivated superabsorbent polymer, and any waste water discharged from the inactivation of the superabsorbent polymer.
A method of recovering structural members from a used absorbent article comprising a front sheet, a back sheet, and an absorbent body between the front sheet and the back sheet, wherein at least one of the front sheet and the back sheet comprises a film, and wherein the absorbent body comprises an absorbent body material, the method comprising:
- swelling the used absorbent article with water;
- applying a physical shock to and disintegrating the swelled used absorbent article into at least the film and the absorbent body material;
- and
- separating the film and the absorbent body material,
- wherein the film and the absorbent body material are connected at joining sections by an adhesive, and
- wherein in the separating of the film and the absorbent body material, the adhesive at the joining sections is removed by dissolving the adhesive with a solvent.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.