Effect of elevated temperature on the tensile properties of recycled mixed plastic waste

The production, consumption and waste generation rate of plastic has increased considerably ever since the first industrial scale production of synthetic polymers took place in the 1940s. In Australia, the plastic solid waste comprises 16% by weight of municipal solid waste and only about one-fourth of these plastic wastes are recycled. One of the best options to increase the recycling rate is to convert these plastic wastes into products suitable for housing and construction. However, a critical technical barrier for widespread use of plastic in structural engineering application is the influence of temperature on the material. This paper reports the effect of elevated temperature on the tensile properties of recycled mixed plastic waste. Recycled mixed plastic were prepared using an injection moulding process and tested using coupon specimens following the ISO 527 standard. The temperature was set at 23oC, 30oC, 40oC, 60oC, 80oC and 100oC. It was observed that when the temperature increases from 23oC to 100oC, the tensile strength and modulus reduced from 14.8 MPa and 906.2 MPa to 3.7 MPa and 179.4 MPa, respectively. This result emphasises to use thermal stabiliser and/or thermal coating to prevent the decrement of mechanical properties