Effect of Hard Plastic Waste on the Quality of Recycled Polypropylene Blends
Patrizio Tratzi,
Chiara Giuliani,
Marco Torre,
Laura Tomassetti,
Roberto Petrucci,
Antonio Iannoni,
Luigi Torre,
Salvatore Genova,
Valerio Paolini,
Francesco Petracchini,
Gabriella Di Carlo
Affiliations
Patrizio Tratzi
National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research (CNR-IIA), Via Salaria 29,300, 00015 Monterotondo, Italy
Chiara Giuliani
National Research Council of Italy, Institute for the Study of Nanostructured Materials (CNR-ISMN), Via Salaria 29,300, 00015 Monterotondo, Italy
Marco Torre
National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research (CNR-IIA), Via Salaria 29,300, 00015 Monterotondo, Italy
Laura Tomassetti
National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research (CNR-IIA), Via Salaria 29,300, 00015 Monterotondo, Italy
Roberto Petrucci
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Perugia University, Unità di Ricerca Consorzio Interuniversitario per la Scienza e la Tecnologia dei Materiali (INSTM), Strada di Pentima 4, 05100 Terni, Italy
Antonio Iannoni
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Perugia University, Unità di Ricerca Consorzio Interuniversitario per la Scienza e la Tecnologia dei Materiali (INSTM), Strada di Pentima 4, 05100 Terni, Italy
Luigi Torre
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Perugia University, Unità di Ricerca Consorzio Interuniversitario per la Scienza e la Tecnologia dei Materiali (INSTM), Strada di Pentima 4, 05100 Terni, Italy
Salvatore Genova
Ente di Studio per la Pianificazione Ecosostenibile dei Rifiuti s.r.l. (ESPER), Largo Cibrario 10, 10144 Torino, Italy
Valerio Paolini
National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research (CNR-IIA), Via Salaria 29,300, 00015 Monterotondo, Italy
Francesco Petracchini
National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research (CNR-IIA), Via Salaria 29,300, 00015 Monterotondo, Italy
Gabriella Di Carlo
National Research Council of Italy, Institute for the Study of Nanostructured Materials (CNR-ISMN), Via Salaria 29,300, 00015 Monterotondo, Italy
The recycling of plastic waste is undergoing fast growth due to environmental, health and economic issues, and several blends of post-consumer and post-industrial polymeric materials have been characterized in recent years. However, most of these researches have focused on plastic containers and packaging, neglecting hard plastic waste. This study provides the first experimental characterization of different blends of hard plastic waste and virgin polypropylene in terms of melt index, differential scan calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), mechanical properties (tensile, impact and Shore hardness) and Vicat softening test. Compared to blends based on packaging plastic waste, significant differences were observed in terms of melt flow index (about 10 points higher for hard plastic waste). Mechanical properties, in particular yield strain, were instead quite similar (between 5 and 9%), despite a higher standard deviation being observed, up to 10%, probably due to incomplete homogenization. Results demonstrate that these worse performances could be mainly attributed to the presence of different additives, as well as to the presence of impurities or traces of other polymers, other than incomplete homogenization. On the other hand, acceptable results were obtained for selected blends; the optimal blending ratio was identified as 78% post-consumer waste and 22% post-industrial waste, meeting the requirement for injection molding and thermoforming.
