Repetitive Implementation of Material Value Conservation and its Effects on the Mechanical Properties of Plastic Recycling Products

Abstract

Impurity and contaminated waste of flexible plastic packaging will not be viable as raw materials for secondary recycling. This problem could be avoided by repetitive implementation of material value conservation through material purity protection since the product design activities up to the end of packaging life cycle. This paradigm also creates new sequential life cycles of products rather than once when only virgin materials were used as raw materials. With repetitive implementation of material value conservation and serial testing in a polymer laboratory, a type of virgin plastic pellet recycled up to the 8th stage of secondary recycling, and then the mechanical properties of materials tested according to the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards. This research revealed that flexible plastic packaging materials that managed by Material Value Conservation (MVC) implementations were suitable for secondary recycling in producing the viable quality of recycled plastic pellets in mechanical properties measures, and leverage the potential of virgin plastic pellets utilization. Because of MVC implementations protected the purity of materials intensively, and then increased the value of recycled plastic pellets as raw materials for the new life cycle of plastic products.