Abstract
The aim of this work was to improve the performances of Fil-s (film-small), a recycled material obtained from plastic flexible film waste that is made of polyethylene and a minor amount of polypropylene, with traces of polar contaminants (polyamides, maleic anhydride, etc.). The idea was to upgrade the material’s mechanical properties by applying a nanotechnology-based strategy that takes advantage of the composition of Fil-s. In particular, different amounts of copolyamide (CoPA) and its masterbatch with an organic-modified nanosilicate were melt compounded with Fil-s in a twin-screw extruder. The good affinity between Fil-s and CoPA, proved by means of spectroscopic and rheological analysis, allowed for the obtaining of a well-refined morphology for the neat and hybrid blends. This resulted in very interesting increments of the strain at break, which was particularly impressive (10 times higher) in the case of the blend with the lower amount of copolyamide masterbatch, but without sacrificing the stiffness and strength of Fil-s.
Highlights
Cheap, flexible, and multipurpose plastic has become the ubiquitous material of today’s fast-moving economy, but it poses substantial environmental problems due to its accumulation in ecosystems when disposed of improperly [1,2]
The unfilled Fil-s/CoPA blends were first characterized by spectroscopic analysis, in order to highlight the potential interactions between the recycled material and the copolyamide phase that, in turn, affect the distribution/dispersion of CoPA particles inside Fil-s
Different amounts of a virgin copolyamide and its nanocomposite masterbatch (CoPA + 20%PM15) were melt compounded with this recycled material, in order to combine the advantages of the addition of a high-performance plastic and the merits of polymer nanocomposites
Summary
Flexible, and multipurpose plastic has become the ubiquitous material of today’s fast-moving economy, but it poses substantial environmental problems due to its accumulation in ecosystems when disposed of improperly [1,2]. Ever-increasing attention on these negative aspects has stimulated initiatives to tackle these problems [3,4,5,6], especially with respect to packaging, as this represents the main application of plastics and makes up the largest share in the post-consumer plastic waste stream [7,8]. On the waste management side, the European Union has imposed a recycling target, which currently demands 22.5% of waste plastic packaging to be recycled [9], and that figure is proposed to increase to 55% by 2030 [10]. It appears clear that the collecting, sorting, and recycling of post-consumer flexible packages represent necessary steps to hit the more stringent recycling target imposed by the European Union for 2030
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