Recycled PP/HDPE Blends: A Thermal Degradation and Mechanical Properties Study

Abstract

Plastic waste is a current major environmental concerns leading to long-term hazards. Recycling concept is the best practice to minimise the amount of plastic waste in the environment. This initiative promotes development of sustainable technology. Recently, plastics are gaining more recognition in construction field and are being applied widely due to its improved performance, versatility, durability and lightweight. In this study, the use of recycled polypropylene (rPP) and recycled high density polyethylene (rHDPE) as an alternative material for construction are investigated. The thermal degradation and mechanical properties were studied using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and tensile testing method respectively. TGA analysis conducted on recycled and virgin PP and HDPE showed that they have a stable composition. Moreover, TGA was also done to compare recycled and virgin material to assess the degradation process with respect to the total weight loss of samples. The results obtained indicate that the composition of rPP gives higher tensile strength. 100% rPP/rHDPE blend gave the best performance in mechanical properties and have a lower degradation temperature which are requirements for the sintering process necessary in this research study, to produce new lightweight product.

Mechanical reprocessing of polyolefin waste: A review

“…Table shows mechanical properties when recycled PP, LDPE, and HDPE blend with each other , based on ASTM D638 . The mechanical properties show similar trends when recycled PP is mixed with recycled LDPE and recycled HDPE.…”

Composite Fibers from Recycled Plastics Using Melt Centrifugal Spinning

“…Another approach is to blend different recycled wastes [ 30 ]. There has been a fair amount of work examining polyolefin blends [ 31 , 32 , 33 ]. Ductility of PP and polyethylene (PE) blends increases with an increasing PE percentage, but tensile strength follows the opposite trend.…”

“…Elongation at break dramatically decreases when 50 wt % PP is blended with either low-density or high-density polyethylene (LDPE, HDPE) due to the blend incompatibility. The addition of HDPE reduces the spherulite size of PP, decreasing the chance of fracture, but the poor interfacial adhesion limits the stress transfer [ 32 ].…”

Development of Recycled Polypropylene Plastic Fibres to Reinforce Concrete

“…Therefore, the study on reprocessing the commingled plastic waste from roughly sorted waste is very practical. Table 2.1.1 shows mechanical properties when recycled PP is blended with recycled low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and HDPE (Hasanah et al, 2014;Strapasson et al, 2005 incompatibility, processability and thermal degradation are the main problems which limit applications of the natural fillers in the recycled polyolefins (Mengeloglu and Karakus, 2008). Extensive research has been carried out to solve these problems and improve mechanical properties of the composites.…”