Study on the valorisation of laminated waste as radon barriers for indoor spaces

Abstract

Nowadays, there is a severe problem with waste generation, especially with single-use packaging. Although the trend is to try to recycle or reuse this waste, a significant amount still ends up in landfills, which represents a serious environmental problem. This waste includes laminated materials, which are difficult to recycle because the polymeric material and aluminium layers cannot be separated easily. This work proposes the study of the valorisation of several laminated wastes as radon barriers for indoor spaces due to the similarity in composition between these waste and commercial radon barriers. For this purpose, the diffusion coefficient of laminated wastes composed of polymeric and aluminium materials, with thicknesses between 70 and 500 μm, has been calculated using a modification of the ISO/TS 11665–13:2017 standard. The diffusion coefficients obtained are in the range of 10−12 and 10−14 m2/s, a reduction of radon concentration of over 90%, and a high radon resistance is achieved in all cases. These results show the excellent capacity of these materials to slow down radon and indicate that these wastes could be reused to manufacture radon barriers giving a new life to these materials and contributing to sustainable development and a circular economy.