Effect of Recycling in Post-Consumer Polystyrene Cups
Ahmed, Mehnaz (2016)
Ahmed, Mehnaz
Yrkeshögskolan Arcada
2016
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2016060211703
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2016060211703
Tiivistelmä
The aim of the thesis was to recycle post-consumer polystyrene cups and to analyze the changes in mechanical and rheological properties of the recycled polystyrene. The me-chanical properties were tensile strength, Young’s modulus and the rheological proper-ties was melt flow index. In order to analyze the changes in properties, material testing results of pristine polystyrene were compared with the recycled polystyrene. The same polystyrene material was recycled and tested twice in order to see the effects of recy-cling on the polystyrene. Different recycling machines such as plastic shredder, extruder and injection molding were used to recycle the material. The properties have been tested with tensile testing machine and melt flow index machine. In order to find the tensile strength and Young’s modulus, dog bones were made with the injection molding ma-chine and tested with tensile testing machine. The melt flow rate was tested by using re-cycled polystyrene pellets in the melt flow index machine. The obtained results of pris-tine polystyrene and recycled polystyrene were compared in order to find out the chang-es in mechanical and rheological properties due to the recycling process. According to the results, there was no significant changes in the tensile strength and Young`s modulus after the recycling process whereas the melt flow index rate decreased 56.4% after the second recycling process. All the recycling and material testing process has been done in Arcada Plastics Laboratory.