Diego Piazza
University of Caxias do Sul, Brazil
Title: Analysis of the recyclability of polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) waste disposed at coastal ecosystems
Biography
Biography: Diego Piazza
Abstract
One of the major environmental problems is the issue of the contamination of marine fauna and flora. Animals are prone to death by strangulation when trying to feed, involuntarily, on polymer waste present in this environment1. Most of the plastic debris present on the coast has its origin on the inappropriate disposal2. This work aims at studying and developing a methodology for the recycling of polymers present in coastal ecosystems, comparing their properties with commercial polymers. The polymers used in the development of this work were collected at the beach of Torres/Brazil with the help of the Praia Limpa Torres team, in September, 2015. 169.0 kg of waste were collected, from which 20.8 were polymers. The presence of higher amounts of PE and PP is highlighted. After clean and dried, they were ground in a knife mill. The resulting product had an average particle size distribution of 20 mm and was separated according to different densities. Afterwards the polymers were extruded in a single-screw extruder at the temperature profile of 170/185/200°C for PE and obtained by injection, and then submitted to the flexural strength (ASTM D790), and melt flow index (performed under 190°C, 5Kg and 20s for PE; 230°C, 2.16 kg and 10s UCS; Grupo Brinox/Coza; Praia Limpa/Brazil. for PP) tests.