Examination of the possibility of recycling and utilizing recycled polyethylene and polypropylene

Abstract

Due to the advantages of plastic materials, during the last decade their use has increased greatly, both in areas of application and in actual quantities employed. Because it is impossible to avoid plastic consumption, which parallels the development of new technology, realistic solutions have to be searched for the problems arising from the growing use of plastics. That is, recycling methods and ways of evaluating these recycled materials must be found. In addition, recycling refused plastic materials is an essential part of national economy. It is known that the mechanical properties of original materials are different from those of the corresponding recycled materials. However, it is possible to find an optimum point which can be determined by experimentation. In this study, the possibility of recycling and using recycled refuse low-density polyethylene (LDPE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) (which make up 45% of the plastic production in the world) have been researched in relation to their tensile strength exchange ratio. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.