Plastic materials are amongst the most used materials in today's industry. With increasing production of plastic products, it is essential to determine how to handle waste while keeping in mind a sustainable development. One solution is to recycle and reuse waste material.
In my thesis I measured the crystallization temperature, melting temperature and melting enthalpy, which was used to calculate the degree of crystallinity of high-density polyethylene, which was recycled up to one hundred times. Raw material was also added to the recycled materials in the ratio of raw/recycled = 10/90, 30/70, 50/50, 70/30, 90/10.
It was found that the melting temperature decreased by 3,39% and crystallization temperature by 2,39% after the hundredth recycling cycle compared to the raw material. From industrial point of view this change was negligible. The degree of crystallinity decreased by 13,26 % after the hundredth recycling cycle. However, if raw material was added to the recycled material in the ratio raw/recycled = 90/10 or 70/30, the change in degree of crystallinity was minimal and from this aspect the material can be successfully reused.
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