Conversion of waste plastic (low density polyethylene) to alternative resources

Abstract

Plastic pollution has become one of the top issues at present throughout the world. In Asian continent plastic pollution is found at the highest rate and Bangladesh is ranking as the 10th number of plastic wastes producer. To minimize the plastic pollution its management is necessary. To do that we tried to convert the plastic wastes as alternative resources for example plastic tiles or plastic tobs. The study was conducted at Jashore University of Science and Technology campus where polyethylene plastic wastes are found available. Molten LDPE were mixed with varying proportion of sand to conduct two experiments. First one is the preparation of plastic tiles and the second one is the making of tobs. Both of the two experiments kept in incubation under water for 7 and 14 days and experimental characterization such as water absorption variation, compressive strength, SEM, FTIR and EDX were done using standard procedures. Density and water absorption changes with the increase in plastic percentage in both the two experiments. In the 1st experiment, compressive strength was done and showed that at the increase of plastic % up to 45% tiles could bear maximum load above 3000 psi that match the standard concrete tiles strength. In the case of EDX analysis, C, O and Hg showed at the highest peak than other elements in both the two experiments. In the surface internal structure of the 1st experiment, some structural deformation was noticed but in the 2nd experiments some cracks and cavities formation found on the naked eye. In the chemical structure of the 1st experiment showed C-O stretching, C=C stretching, O=C=O stretching whereas in the 2nd experiment, most of the tob samples showed C-O stretching, O-H stretching, C=C stretching and N-H stretching. The plastic tiles could be used in rare or rural area and plastic tobs could be used as decorative purposes. From the results, we found the satisfactory output of the product and could be used as alternative resources.