How to produce strong plastic films for trash bins?

The blown film process is used extensively to produce biaxially oriented film for many commercial products. This process produces a wide range of products and it is including trash bags.

Garbage bag, bin bag, rubbish bag, trash can, refuse bag is various name for a disposable bag used to contain solid waste. These bags are useful for lining the inside of waste containers to prevent waste from covering the inside of the container.

Trash bags are a convenient and hygienic way to deal with waste and are often used. Plastic trash bags are quite lightweight and are especially useful for dirty or wet garbage, which is common for food waste, and are also useful for wrapping garbage to minimize the odors.

Trash bags are often used with containers or trash cans. This serves to maintain the hygienic of the container, and avoiding contact of the container with the actual waste. When the bag in the container is filled with garbage, its edges can be pulled out of the bag, closed and tied without major contact with the waste. There are various type of trash bags, such as drawstring garbage bags, bottom stars bags etc.

The market for consumer trash bags can be divided into two segments. National brand and private label bags those usually sold in stores, in stock clubs and other shops, discount stores, supermarkets or shops. Universal bags also sold in supermarkets and shops, warehouse clubs and other mass traders and dealers. Competition in this the market is based solely on price because it does not exist trademark recognition or advertising.

The primary resin consumed for consumer trash bag market is LLDPE, blended with LDPE, along with increased market penetration of HMW-HDPE. The low quality end of the market utilizes a high level of scrap content. Here I suggest a very practical blending percentage for good quality bags.

Suggested a practical mono layer trash bag blend percentage

Mono layer blown film line

Trash big bag formulation:

50% (HDPE 7000F) + 33% (Elite 5110G) + 12% (LLDPE LL0209) + 4% (LDPE LH0075) + 1% Slip agent.

By introducing of LLDPE and using coextrusion such as 2 or 3 layers for production of trash (or refuse) bags (Table below). We can accommodate film down gauging and by using recycled material allows for improved economics and addresses environmental concerns. High molecular weight HDPE polymers are also finding increased usage due to further down-gauging opportunities. This is the largest coextruded film market segment.

Some trash bags structures suggested below with coextrusion film

LLDPE/LLDPE with 50/50 layer percentage.

LLDPE/RECYCLE/LLDPE with 33/34/33 layer percentage

LLDPE/HMW-HDPE/LLDPE with 10/80/10 layer percentage

Institutional Refuse Sacks

Institutional refuse bags are utilized by a variety of markets such as hospitals, restaurants, hotels, motels, private businesses and other public institutions such as schools, hospitals, health care centers, municipalities and local authority agencies. There are a few large entities that are able to purchase institutional bags directly from the producer, however, most of the bags in the market are purchased through distributors.

For production of these refuse bags the most used resin is LLDPE, Followed by HMWHDPE and LDPE. The LLDPE used is butene, hexene or octene LLDPE. The coextrusion method enables bag producers to utilize a higher percentage of recycle scrap, into the inner core layer of the film, as bags of more than one layer are stronger.

Most of plastic trash bags are not biodegradable. However, in recent years, various environment-friendly bags have been introduced to the market which are 100% compostable.

If you need more complicated formulation for multilayers blown film, please contact me and I can help you for developing new cost effective structures.