Effects of recycled PVC content and processing temperature on the properties of PVC foam products

Abstract

This work used different types of recycled PVC products including PVC pipes and bottles, as rigid recyclates, and PVC plastic coverings, as soft recyclate. The PVC recyclates were added into virgin PVC foam, ranging from 0-100wt%. The PVC blends were then moulded with different processing temperatures, and their properties were monitored. It was found that the concentration of the pipe recyclates up to 60 wt% could be used to add into the PVC virgin for production of rigid PVC foam products. The higher the recyclate content led to the higher the blend density and the mechanical properties (flexural and impact strength, and hardness). For bottle recyclates, up to 60 wt% of bottle recyclates could be used for rigid PVC foam production, but the overall properties, except for the impact strength, of the PVC foam did not improve withincreasing the recycled bottles. For recycled coverings, increasing plastic coverings led to an increase in average cell size, but resulted in decreases of impact and hardness resistances. The flexible or soft PVC foam products could be manufactured with use of 0-100wt% recycled coverings. In summary, it could be concludedthat recyclates of pipes, bottles and plastic coverings can be mixed with virgin PVC foam for making foam products.

Keywords

• recycled PVC
• rigid PVC foam
• soft PVC foam
• pipe
• bottle
• plastic covering