Assessment of Different Application Grades of Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) Polyolefins from Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) in the United States

Journal Article · Sat Oct 19 00:00:00 EDT 2024 · ACS Applied Polymer Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acsapm.4c01927· OSTI ID:2551755

Cecon, Victor Sanfins ^[1]; Pham, Tien ^[1]; Curtzwiler, Greg ^[1]; Vorst, Keith ^[1]

---

1. Iowa State University, Ames, IA (United States)

The recycling of plastics has been gaining traction in the following years as many companies, organizations, and governments are pushing toward a more circular economy. However, plastic recycling rates are still small compared to those of plastic production, especially for polyolefins, such as high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP). With the goal of finding applications for recycled plastic resin, recyclers can face some challenges associated with the heterogeneity in the polymer properties of plastic waste streams, which could hinder the full potential of recycling due to the lack of a consistent feedstock. Here, this study assessed how an additional sorting step of recycled HDPE and PP streams, separating them into two categories based on the previous application, impacts the recycled polymer properties, such as physical, molecular, and thermal. It was demonstrated that manually separating HDPE articles previously processed by extrusion blow molding (EBM) or injection molding (IM) and PP articles by thermoforming (TF) or IM could yield recycled resins with more consistent properties, considering the significant differences between them. This highlights that an additional sorting step would allow recyclers to target more premium or currently unattainable plastic processing applications with postconsumer recycled (PCR) resins, which could significantly promote an increase in plastic recycling rates. Nevertheless, the development of new technologies is needed to automate this extra sorting step, as with the increase in scale manual sortation could not be feasible and cost-effective, reducing the attractiveness of using PCR resins in comparison to virgin ones.

• Research Organization: University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Polymer and Food Protection Consortium (PFPC); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Sustainable Transportation. Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO)
• Grant/Contract Number: EE0009285
• OSTI ID: 2551755
• Journal Information: ACS Applied Polymer Materials, Journal Name: ACS Applied Polymer Materials Journal Issue: 21 Vol. 6; ISSN 2637-6105
• Publisher: ACS Publications
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
Plastics recycling
blow molding
injection molding
organic polymers
polyethylene
polymers
polyolefins
polypropylene
recycling
thermoforming
thermoresponsive polymers