Study of Mechanical Properties of Recycled Polyethylene of High and Low Density

Abstract

High and low density polyethylene materials constitute about 48% of total weight of plastics waste in Europe, that depends on the frequent use of these materials in packaging applications. This paper analyze the recycling effect on the mechanical properties of high and low density polyethylene (HDPE and LDPE). A mechanical recycling process was tested for the plastics waste of high and low density polyethylene, then a tensile and impact tests were performed on different mixing ratios for each of the both materials ranging from 100% of the virgin material and up to 100% of the recycled material with a difference of 10% of the sample to the other. This paper discusses the tensile properties of tensile stress at the fracture, elongation and modulus of elasticity and the impact test results for HDPE and LDPE were compared with each other.