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Long Term Properties of Polyolefins pp 201–230Cite as

Recycled Polyolefins. Material Properties and Means for Quality Determination

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Part of the book series: Advances in Polymer Science ((POLYMER,volume 169))

Abstract

Recycling of polymers has come to be a necessary part of the development of a sustainable society. Recycling of low price bulk polymers, to which group the polyolefins belong, is seen by many as a waste of time and resources when they simply may be energy recovered. Several life-cycle assessments (LCA) have, however, proven that it is also valuable to material recycle bulk polymers such as polyolefins. In many instances, polyolefins are in-plant recycled and used again in similar products, but they may also be separated and sorted from municipal solid waste. This paper will discuss recycled polyolefins, in particular their change in material properties and how to characterise these properties and show that these analyses are a basis for quality determination. In fact, an important vehicle for the success of recycled polymeric materials is to use a quality concept. Accurate determination of a series of polymeric properties will be the only way recycled polymeric materials can compete with virgin ones. Analytical methods useful in the quality concept are presented and discussed. In particular, three parameters are important for quality measurements. These are degree of degradation, polymer composition and presence of low molecular weight compounds (degradation products of polymer matrix and additives, initiator/catalysts, solvents, use-related e.g. fragrance or flavour etc.). For the future it is important to give recycled polymeric materials status as resources besides the fossil and renewable ones.

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Abbreviations

APME :

Association of Plastic Producers in Europe

ATR :

Attenuated total reflectance

CI :

Carbonyl index

CL :

Chemiluminescence

CLS :

Classical least square

DSC :

Differential scanning calorimetry

FDA :

Food and Drug Administration

LCA :

Life cycle assessment

MIR :

Mid-infrared

MLR :

Multiple linear regression

MSC :

Multiple scattering correction

MSW :

Municipal solid waste

NIR :

Near infrared

OIT :

Oxidation induction time

PLS :

Partial least square

PCR :

Post-consumer recyclate

PCW :

Post-consumer waste

PCA :

Principal component analysis

PCR :

Principal component regression

RMSEP :

Root-mean-square error of prediction

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Acknowledgement

Several European projects have financed different parts of the studies presented and discussed here. These are ‘Electrostatic recovery of paper and plastic packaging waste’ (ELREC), BRPR-CT96-0247; ‘Development of multipurpose industrial units for recycling of plastic wastes by on-line pattern recognition of polymers features’ (SURE-PLAST), BRPR-CT-98-0783 and ‘Industrial production of high performance ecological polymeric composites based on residual/renewable cellulose fibres and post consumer thermoplastics’ (ECOSITES), G5RD-CT-2000-00337. Dr. Walker Camacho, former PhD. student, and Frida Stangenberg are gratefully acknowledged for contributions to various parts of this work.

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  1. Department of Fibre and Polymer Science, The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Teknikringen 56–58, 100 44 , Stockholm, Sweden

    Sigbritt Karlsson

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  1. Sigbritt Karlsson
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Correspondence to Sigbritt Karlsson .

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Ann-Christine Albertsson

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Karlsson, S. Recycled Polyolefins. Material Properties and Means for Quality Determination. In: Albertsson, AC. (eds) Long Term Properties of Polyolefins. Advances in Polymer Science, vol 169. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/b94173

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/b94173

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-40769-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45196-9

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