Valorization of post-consumer polythene water sachet and Parinari polyandra shell residue for composites production
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Valorization of post‑consumer polythene water sachet and Parinari polyandra shell residue for composites production T. E. Odetoye1 · A. G. Adeniyi1 · O. Akande1 Received: 6 May 2020 / Accepted: 7 October 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Mitigation of the environmental burden associated with indiscriminate disposal of post-consumer low density polyethylene (LDPE) packaging material is receiving attention in recent times. There is a need to search for alternative reuse of the accumulating plastic wastes constituting pollutants in our environment. This work involves the preparation and evaluation of the bio-composite samples from post-consumer low density polyethylene water sachets and parinari fruits shell. Biocomposite samples of filler percentages 10, 20 and 30% were produced. The mechanical properties of the samples were determined as function of filler content and particle size according to ASTM standards and confirmed with SEM. The samples had desirable hardness strength of 4568.9 N/mm2 and desirable biodegradability for 30% filler weight of particle size 4 mm. The biocomposite samples exhibited desirable impact (51.75 kJ/m2), tensile (10.02) and flexural strength (18.23 N/mm2) with the 10% weight samples. The findings in this study suggest that post-consumer LDPE wastes can be valorized by conversion to biocomposites using biomass wastes such as parinari shell as cheap value-addition material, providing a cheap potential waste management method for solving the global plastic waste crisis. Keywords Waste polyethylene sachet · Biocomposite · Parinari residue · Waste management
1 Introduction The environmental burden constituted by post-consumer plastic wastes which include low density polyethylene (LDPE) bags, films and sachets cannot be over-emphasized [1]. The havoc wreaked to the environment through incineration of such plastic wastes and the problem of decreasing landfill capacities have necessitated global research efforts to be directed towards the conversion of such polymer wastes to value added products [2]. More than 50 million tonnes of post-consumer plastics wastes are generated yearly in Europe, USA and Japan [3] leading to ban of plastic bags in certain countries [1]. In most developing countries, LDPE sachet is commonly used for packaging water, resulting in large volumes of post-consumer plastic wastes that currently constitute a serious environmental challenge [4].
LDPE is widely used because of ease of processing which is enabled by LDPE macromolecules that are not tightly packed because the highly branched chain partly impedes alignment of the methylene chain. Other desirable properties include chemical resistance, flexibility, tensile strength, tear strength, even at relatively low temperatures [5–10]. Although, LDPE packaging materials are durable and are able to preserve contents due to the unreactive nature they are non-biodegradable. This same durability property is unfortunately the reason for the lingering post-consumer plastic bags, films, sachet in the environme
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