Additives to improve properties of recycled plastics

News- According to a study by the consulting firm Conversio, around 250 million metric tons of plastic waste are globally generated per year. Only around 20 percent of this plastic is recycled. In mechanical recycling, waste plastics are shredded and melted to make recyclate, which is then used to make new products. However, this material is not suitable for many applications without further processing. One reason is that repeated use and processing often damage the polymer chains so much that the plastic becomes brittle or yellowed. Another reason is that plastic waste is often made up of a mixture of different plastic types which cannot be separated from each other. For example, beverage bottles are made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), while their lids are usually made of polypropylene (PP). Such mixtures of incompatible plastics have a significantly negative impact on quality

BASF researchers have addressed these problems by developing various additive packages to specifically stabilize and improve the quality of recycled materials. In this regard, materials such as compatibilizers will enhance the mechanical properties of polymer mixtures. This upgrades mechanically recycled plastics and the products made from them in a plastics cycle

2020/23/12

Ref: www.bioplasticsmagazine.com

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