Upgrading Mixed Plastic Waste through Industrial Symbiosis: Pseudoductile Regenerated Cellulose Fiber-Reinforced Shredder Residue Composites.

The mechanical performance of mixed plastic waste from shredder residue is hindered by brittleness and catastrophic failure, limiting its potential applications. In this study, the mechanical properties of mixed plastic is enhanced by reinforcement with rayon fibers through a wet powder impregnation process to leverage the fiber's ductility and entanglement. However, mixed plastic remains poorly dispersed in water during the composite manufacturing, resulting in poorly consolidated composite, which further deteriorates the mechanical properties of mixed plastic from 1.

Mechanical Upcycling Immiscible Polyethylene Terephthalate-Polypropylene Blends with Carbon Fiber Reinforcement.

Ineffective sorting of post-consumer plastics remains one of the major obstacles in the recycling of plastics. Consequently, these highly heterogeneous, mixed post-consumer plastics will end up in landfill or have to be incinerated as repurposing them directly would lead to a polymer blend with inferior quality for many end-uses. In this work, we demonstrate the use of carbon fibers (CFs) to practically upgrade the mechanical properties of mixed plastics, adding value to them.