Overlooked Impact of Moisture on the Stability of Printing Ink and Its Impact on Recycled Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) Quality.

Printing inks, composed of binders, pigments, and additives, are essential components in plastic packaging but complicate recycling due to plastic contamination and degradation. While polyolefins are resistant to hydrolytic degradation, moisture generated from upstream cleaning processes, which is often ignored, can accelerate the degradation of ink binders, affecting the recyclate quality. This study has examined the impact of 3 wt.