Summary:
Researchers have
carried out a study research that enables to recover agricultural plastic waste
and turns them into new materials with higher added value, low price and
improved recyclability. This would reduce the environmental impact generated by
agricultural waste.
The research
group of Polymers, Characterization and Applications from the Universidad
Politécnica de Madrid in collaboration with the Polymer Engineering Laboratory
from de department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology at the
Universidad de Oviedo, have carried out a study research that enables to
recover agricultural plastic waste and turns them into new materials with
higher added value, low price and improved recyclability. This would reduce the
environmental impact generated by agricultural waste.
The plastic usage in agriculture for greenhouse, tunnel and fillings has
rapidly increased since the fifties due to worldwide population increase and
the growth of food production need. Within Europe, Spain is the country with
the largest area allocated to greenhouses (over 60,800 ha) although
internationally this figure is largely overcome by other countries such as
China that has over 1,000,000 ha.
However, recycling end-of-life plastics is still low. Only the 23% of
plastics are mechanically recycled even though the mechanic recycling of
plastic waste can lead to better materials. This can be an optimized solution
for plastic waste.
This research is based on two essential actions that can promote the
mechanical recycling of agricultural plastics. Firstly, the usage of residual
cellulose fibers from the papermaking process as reinforcement for agricultural
waste plastics. The mixture of agricultural plastic waste and cellulosic waste
allow us to obtain eco-composites materials. And secondly, the usage of a
selected amount of plastic from urban waste and selected additives in order to
enhance the mechanical properties of the obtained recycled materials. The
residual cellulose fibers are of great environmental, financial and social
interest since these materials are biodegradable, low cost, light weight and
from renewable source.
Throughout the first part of the project, researchers characterized the
plastics used in agriculture and obtained the eco-compounds with residual
cellulose. The plastics used in agriculture include diverse polymers and
complex additive formulations to fulfill their function and enhance their
durability. But, due to the outdoor usage in extreme weather, these plastics
experience a degradation which leads to loss of their properties. It was
observed that this plastic waste still contain remnants of valuable light
stabilizer additives that can be interesting for outdoor usage.
Researchers studied the effects of the cellulose percentage and the effects
of the added additives over the eco-compounds properties which were obtain in
order to determine the most suitable formulations. The reinforcing effect of
the cellulose fibers was proved over plastic waste which resulted in substantial
increases of the eco-compounds mechanical strength. This study has shown the
feasibility of obtaining these eco-composite materials at pilot plant scale.
Thus, to develop new recycled eco-composite materials from plastic waste
and cellulosic has enabled to obtain materials with good mechanical properties
suitable for extrusion processes or injection molding. These recycled materials
have enough properties to be used in diverse applications, including the
outdoor usage.
The approval of the good properties of these materials is essential to
boost the agricultural waste recycling because the factor that limits recycling
is the approval by the recycled products market. The research findings can help
to reduce abandoned waste and increase the percentage of mechanical recycling
obtaining important savings on raw materials, energy and emissions.
This research was supported and funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food
and Environment (General Secretariat for Pollution Prevention and Climate
Change) and the Asturian Plan for Science, Technology and Innovation. Likewise,
the BEFASA Pásticos and CIBA companies have supported this project.
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Note: Materials may be edited for
content and length.
Journal Reference:
- Carlos González-Sánchez, Alvar Martínez-Aguirre, Beatriz Pérez-García, Joaquín Martínez-Urreaga, María U. de la Orden, Carmen Fonseca-Valero. Use of residual agricultural plastics and cellulose fibers for obtaining sustainable eco-composites prevents waste generation. Journal of Cleaner Production, 2014; 83: 228 DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.07.061
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