Abstract
Abstract Aiming to further plastics recycling via rotational moulding plastics processing, blends of virgin and recycled polyethylene sourced from post-consumer plastics were developed. Three different kinds of recycled high density polyethylene – from bottles, pipes and mixed household waste – were compounded with virgin medium density polyethylene in an extruder. The ideal amount of recyclate was chosen based upon the impact resistance of different contents (25, 50 and 75%) of recycled plastic with the 50/50 blend found to have the best performance. Compression-moulded and rotationally-moulded samples were analysed through falling dart impact test, flexural test, melt flow rate and differential scanning calorimetry analysis. The impact results of the compression-moulded samples showed an increase in the impact resistance of the blends with a higher melt flow index and lower degree of crystallinity. The rotationally-moulded specimens displayed much lower impact resistance than the pure virgin plastic and a 20–30% reduction in the flexural moduli, which were ascribed to the crystalline structure of the part and issues in the blends’ rotomoulding process. It was concluded that blending virgin and recycled polyethylene for rotational moulding can be an effective way to further plastics recycling inside the Circular Economy context.
Highlights
The Circular Economy has a vital role in contemporary attempts to improve sustainability worldwide
Some precepts of the Circular Economy enclosed in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Standard on life cycle assessment ISO 14040 [15] may prevent the reinsertion of post-consumer plastic in the production stream, leading to the wastage of still usable materials
In the blends having different medium-density polyethylene (MDPE)/rHDPE01 contents, the Tm temperatures obtained in the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis suggested that high-density polyethylene (HDPE) has dominated the crystallisation process of the blends, leaving the MDPE more amorphous and compensating for the stiffness HDPE in the impact resistance
Summary
The Circular Economy has a vital role in contemporary attempts to improve sustainability worldwide. All sectors of society pursue more sustainable actions and practices through industrial symbiosis, creative design, remanufacturing and cleaner production, aiming the transition to systems of more conscious consumption and production [1–3]. Inside this scenario, post-consumer plastics have received particular attention from researchers and funding agencies. As important as the environmental concern, the economic aspect of increasing the recycling rate of plastics should be considered [9–13]. Some precepts of the Circular Economy enclosed in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Standard on life cycle assessment ISO 14040 [15] may prevent the reinsertion of post-consumer plastic in the production stream, leading to the wastage of still usable materials. As stated by Geyer [16], “There is no engineering relationship or law of physics that requires primary production to decrease as recycling increases.”
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