Tensile and flexural investigation on polypropylene recycling

Plastic recycling can be an effective way of reducing large amount of plastic waste in plastic manufacturing industry. Polypropylene (PP) is a versatile material that is capable of numerous commercial applications. This study is about the effect of composition between virgin and recycled PP towards their mechanical properties. The effect of blending PP product was investigated whether it can improve the performance of the material without deteriorating its original mechanical properties. The tensile and flexural tests were conducted according to ASTM D638 and ASTM D790, respectively. The results from tensile and flexural tests revealed that the sample which consisted of 75wt% of virgin PP and 25wt% of recycled PP were the optimum composition. The blended PP had positive influence on tensile strength, percent of elongation at break and Young's modulus. Opposite trends were obtained from flexural tests where both flexural strength and bending modulus performed slightly less compared to virgin PP. In fact, blending virgin and recycled PP together at any composition did not seriously deteriorate the mechanical properties. Therefore, recycled PP can be used in production without the need to sacrifice its mechanical properties. Besides, PP recycling can reduce material costing and help to save the environment by reducing PP waste.