Towards Circular Economy by the Valorization of Different Waste Subproducts through Their Incorporation in Composite Materials: Ground Tire Rubber and Chicken Feathers.

Xavier Colom,Javier Cañavate,Fernando Carrillo-Navarrete

doi:10.3390/polym14061090

Abstract

Incorporation of residua into polymeric composites can be a successful approach to creating materials suitable for specific applications promoting a circular economy approach. Elastomeric (Ground Tire Rubber or GTR) and biogenic (chicken feathers or CFs) wastes were used to prepare polymeric composites in order to evaluate the tensile, acoustic and structural differences between both reinforcements. High-density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP) and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) polymeric matrices were used. EVA matrix defines better compatibility with both reinforcement materials (GTR and CFs) than polyolefin matrices (HDPE and PP) as it has been corroborated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), termogravimetric analysis (TGA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In addition, composites reinforced with GTR showed better acoustic properties than composites reinforced with CFs, due to the morphology of the reinforcing particles.

Highlights

Nowadays, one of the greatest concerns of humanity is the huge amounts of waste that are produced year after year around the world
Analyzing the band at 1635 cm− 1, it can be seen that the highest absorbance value corresponds to the chicken feathers (CFs) reinforced composites and the lowest to the Ground Tire Rubber (GTR) reinforced composite
The results show that composite samples have aa better better noise noise absorption absorption coefficient coefficient than than the the High-density polyethylene (HDPE)

Summary

Introduction

One of the greatest concerns of humanity is the huge amounts of waste that are produced year after year around the world. Strategies for the valorization of wastes or by-products based on recovering and recycling have been developed during the last years in order to reduce the negative environmental impact caused by the use and transformation of resources [1,2]. There are many kinds of waste, but special attention is paid to materials that are not biodegradable, such as plastics [3,4], or to residua that, even being biodegradable, are produced in great quantities and can cause massive environmental impacts, including climate-harming emissions by illegal dumping or burning, such as crop wastes, eggshells, chicken feathers, crustacean shells and others [5]. Many alternatives of waste valorization are currently under research and development. Research all over the world focuses on the development of strategies for recycling [6]

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