Waste transformation of plastic bags by wet polymer binding

Abstract

Since twenty years, Madagascar suffered, by the advanced level of pollution due to the proliferation of plastic bags. They are always discarded in nature and constitute an increasingly important visual and environmental pollution in cities. And because they are easily carried and deposited everywhere by the wind, it has more negative consequences on the environment and thus on the health of the population. Plastics are among the most persistent pollutants and the problem appears when they reach the waste stage. The degradation of these plastic bags requiring more than four centuries, so the search for solutions for the use of these products is very solicited to preserve the environment. That’s why our research is consecrated into the transformation of plastic bags into pavers or bricks at a lower cost. The combustion of plastics releases large quantities of thick and toxic fumes. So, to avoid this phenomenon, our so-called “wet” process consists in heating a mixture of a Rich Carbon of Waste Element (RCWE), fusing the plastic bags as a binder and adding the sand as agglomerate. We obtain a quantity of product 3 times higher than the quantity of plastic bags used (to have 60 kg of product, we need 20 kg of plastic bags) unlike the other processes providing 5 kg of product for 20 kg of plastic bags, ie the plastic is reduced by ¼. The rest of the study focused on the melting temperature of the plastic bag in the RCWE which is approximately 110° C, the proportions between the RCWE and the plastic bag for the optimization of the cost of energy : we showed that the energy is optimal for a proportion of half (100g of RCWE for 50g of plastic), the proportions between plastics and sand (binder and agglomerate) : by weight, the binder must always be less than the agglomerate (the result is optimal in the proportion of agglomerate -binder 80 -20), the mechanical behavior : the result shows that when the quantity of plastics is the higher, the maximum stress is high, but the plastic area is low. The product is among the ductile materials, the property of which a material can permanently deform before breaking (an important factor for the deformation of materials), the permeability, and the adhesion test with the rubber.