Neeti Gandhi^1,3, Nicholas Farfaras², Nien-Hwa Linda Wang³, Wan-Ting Chen^2,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.9, No.8, pp. 1463-1483, 2021, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2021.015529

Abstract Increasing production and use of various novel plastics products, a low recycling rate, and lack of effective recycling/disposal methods have resulted in an exponential growth in plastic waste accumulation in landfills and in the environment. To better understand the effects of plastic waste, Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) was done to compare the effects of various production and disposal methods. LCA shows the specific effects of the cradle-to-grave or cradle-to-cradle scenarios for landfill, incineration, and mechanical recycling. The analysis clearly indicates that increasing recycling of plastics can significantly save energy and eliminate harmful emissions of various carcinogens and GHGs into the… More >

O. Gil-Castell¹, J. D. Badia^1,2, A. Ribes-Greus^1,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.6, No.4, pp. 370-382, 2018, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2017.634170

Abstract A blending strategy of virgin and reprocessed polylactide may be postulated as an alternative to reduce the material cost at industrial level, and as a valorization route to plastic waste management of production scraps. The performance of blends prepared from virgin polylactide and polylactide mechanically reprocessed up to two cycles (PLA-V/R) was assessed in terms of thermo-oxidative stability, morphology, viscoelasticity and thermal kinetics for energetic valorization. PLA-V/R blends showed appropriate thermo-oxidative stability. The amorphous nature of polylactide was preserved after blending. The viscoelastic properties showed an increment of the mechanical blend effectiveness, which suggested the feasibility of using PLA-V/R blends… More >