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We improved the recyclability of mixed poly(ethylene-terephthalate) (PET) and poly(lactic acid) (PLA) bottle waste. We made uncompatibilized and compatibilized PET/PLA blends of different weight ratios with a twin-screw extruder. Then, we analyzed the mechanical properties, the miscibility and the thermal stability of the blends with and without compatibilizers. From the change in intrinsic viscosities (IV), we concluded that different reactions occur between the polymer chains due to the compatibilizers. We observed that when ethylene-butyl acrylate-glycidyl methacrylate (E-BA-GMA) as compatibilizer was added, the blends became tougher; elongation at break and Charpy impact strength increased, but Young's modulus of the blends decreased. In addition, the compatibilizers improved the thermal stability of the blends and this may have been caused by a number of mechanisms.

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Nowadays, with the increasing amount of biopolymers used, it can be expected that biodegradable polymers (e.g. PLA, PBAT) may appear in the petrol-based polymer waste stream. However, their impact on the recycling processes is not known yet; moreover, the properties of the products made from contaminated polymer blends are not easily predictable. Therefore, our goal was to investigate the rheological and mechanical properties of synthetic and biopolymer compounds. We made different compounds from regranulates of mixed polyethylene film waste and original polylactic acid (PLA) by extruison, and injection molded specimens from the compounds. We investigated the rheological properties of the regranulates, and the mechanical properties of the samples. When PLA was added, the viscosity and specific volume of all the blends decreased, and mechanical properties (tensile strength, modulus, and impact strength) changed significantly. Young's modulus increased, while elongation at break and impact strength decreased with the increase of the weight fraction of PLA.

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