Recent developments in recycling of polystyrene based plastics

Abstract

Due to their superior properties, plastics derived from petroleum have been extensively used almost in everyday life since last few decades. Because of lack in the manageability of plastic solid waste, their volume is increasing steadily in the natural world. Unfortunately, the disposal of plastics wastes in the oceans and land filling has led to a global issue. To effectively and efficiently deal with plastic solid waste is becoming a great challenge for the society as plastic solid waste creates big threat to our environment. Recycling of plastics solid waste should be performed to produce products having same quality to original plastics. This review article gives an overview of plastics solid waste with particular emphasis on the recent progress in polystyrene based plastics.

Biodegradable plastics from linier low-density polyethylene and polysaccharide: The influence of polysaccharide and acetic acid

“…The plastics wastes found in ground water and even inside the digestive system of sea animals in recent days, in the form of either macro-or micro-plastics (Frias & Nash, 2019), is a problem not only in Indonesia but also around the globe (Botterell et al, 2019;Cho et al, 2019;Guzzetti et al, 2018;Karthik et al, 2018;Li et al, 2019;Rainieri & Barranco, 2018;Slootmaekers et al, 2019;Teng et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2019;Windsor et al, 2019). Apart from development of recycling technologies for non-biodegradable plastics (Horodytska et al, 2018;Mwanza et al, 2018;Ragaert et al, 2017;Silveira et al, 2018;Thakur et al, 2018), development of biodegradable plastics (Chinaglia et al, 2018) is one of important solutions in coping with plastics wastes. According to ASTM standard (D6813), biodegradable plastics refer to polymeric materials that are "capable of undergoing decomposition into carbon dioxide, methane, water, inorganic compounds, or biomass in which the predominant mechanism is the enzymatic action of microorganisms, that can be measured by standardized tests, in a specified period of time, reflecting available disposal condition" (Song et al, 2009).…”

Manufacturing and Evaluation of Mechanical, Morphological, and Thermal Properties of Reduced Graphene Oxide-Reinforced Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) Nanocomposites

“…Amorphous polystyrene (PS) is a transparent material characterized by good tensile strength, up to 60 MPa, low impact strength, 2 kJ/m 2 , medium hardness, and good dielectric properties, breakdown voltage up to 65 kV/mm [1,2]. It is resistant to acids (excluding concentrated and oxidizing), alcohols, alkalis, fats, and oils, making it a good material for a number of commodity applications [3,4]. One of the biggest advantages of PS is its softening temperature that is lower than that of other polyolefins, such as polypropylene and polyethylene, which are frequently used in the injection molding technology as well as in other manufacturing techniques [5,6].…”

Halogen-free flame retardants for application in thermoplastics based on condensation polymers

“…The numbers dynamic was reflected by ISI indexed and impact factor publications, like articles, conferences, letters, data papers, proceedings papers, editorial materials, reviews and books, book reviews, chapters or other similar materials. This large interest reflects on one hand the large application potential and on the other hand the recycling ability [7]. Both directions require more intensive use and less ecological impact.…”