No abstract

No abstract

This paper presents a detailed case study on the effective upcycling of a post‐industrial plastic waste stream to a renewed compound, fit for re‐use in a new application. The material investigated was a PET‐contaminated recycled PP, destined for a high‐impact, medium‐stiffness application. After two research trials and one large‐scale industrial trial, an upcycling formulation was determined to bring the recyclate to the required level of the new application, thus closing this specific material loop within the case company. The used methodology adheres to the Design from Recycling principle, in which industrially available (mechanically) recycled polymer materials are matched to potential new products. The design strategy starts from either the properties of an available recycled polymer (and then defines the product) or from the functional boundary conditions of the product (and then selects the material and/or an optional material upcycling step). The Design from Recycling principles can elegantly be combined with those of Design for Recycling, within the framework of a Circular Economy. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 58:528–534, 2018. © 2017 Society of Plastics Engineers

No abstract

No abstract

As designing with recycled materials is becoming indispensable in the context of a circular economy, we argue that understanding how recycled plastics are perceived by stakeholders involved in the front end of the design process, is essential to achieve successful application in practice, beyond the current concept of surrogates according to industry. Based on existing frameworks, 34 experiential scales with semantic opposites were used to evaluate samples of three exemplary recycled plastics by two main industrial stakeholders: 30 material engineers and 30 designers. We describe four analyses: (i) defining experiential material characteristics, (ii) significant differences between the materials, (iii) level of agreement of respondents, and (iv) similarities and differences between designers and engineers. We conclude that the three materials have different perceptual profiles or identities that can initiate future idea generation for high-quality applications. The study illustrates the potential of this evaluation method. We propose that designers can facilitate the valorization and adoption of these undervalued recycled materials, first by industry and ultimately by consumers as well.

The production of linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) yarns for artificial turf is an advanced extrusion process, which relies heavily on the polymer's semicrystalline structure and inherent strengthening mechanisms to obtain the tailored mechanical properties so typical for turf yarns: a combination of strength and resilience. This review aims to bring together all relevant aspects in the structure-materials-processing interaction triangle which is so strongly in evidence in this application, by first summarizing the specific structural origins of the properties of the semicrystalline LLDPE and then discussing how structure evolves during the different steps of the production process, to eventually come to the final product properties of the yarn. V C 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 44080.