Recycling disposable cups into paper plastic composites

Published Date
Waste Management
November 2014, Vol.34(11):2113–2119, doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2014.05.020

• Author 

• Jonathan Mitchell ^a,b,c,
• Luc Vandeperre ^b
• Rob Dvorak ^c
• Ed Kosior ^c
• Karnik Tarverdi ^d
• Christopher Cheeseman ^a,

• aDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
• bDepartment of Materials, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
• cNextek Ltd, 107-111 Fleet Street, London EC4A 2AB, UK
• dWolfson Centre for Materials Processing, Brunel University, London UB8 3PH, UK

Received 23 September 2013. Accepted 25 May 2014. Available online 30 June 2014. 

Highlights

• •
  A new recycling outlet for disposable cups has been developed.
• •
  Disposable cups were shredded to form flakes and used to reinforce polypropylene.
• •
  Mixes contained maleated polyolefin coupling agents had improved interfacial adhesion.
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  Disposable cups can be reused as reinforcement in novel polypropylene composites.

Abstract

The majority of disposable cups are made from paper plastic laminates (PPL) which consist of high quality cellulose fibre with a thin internal polyethylene coating. There are limited recycling options for PPLs and this has contributed to disposable cups becoming a high profile, problematic waste. In this work disposable cups have been shredded to form PPL flakes and these have been used to reinforce polypropylene to form novel paper plastic composites (PPCs). The PPL flakes and polypropylene were mixed, extruded, pelletised and injection moulded at low temperatures to prevent degradation of the cellulose fibres. The level of PPL flake addition and the use of a maleated polyolefin coupling agent to enhance interfacial adhesion have been investigated. Samples have been characterised using tensile testing, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and thermogravimetric analysis. Use of a coupling agent allows composites containing 40 wt.% of PPL flakes to increase tensile strength of PP by 50% to 30 MPa. The Young modulus also increases from 1 to 2.5 GPa and the work to fracture increases by a factor of 5. The work demonstrates that PPL disposable cups have potential to be beneficially reused as reinforcement in novel polypropylene composites.

Keywords

Recycling

Resource efficiency

Disposable cups

Paper plastic laminates

Plastic composites

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• ⁎ 
  Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 2075945971; fax: +44 2075946124.
  
  

For further details log on website :
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956053X14002463

In situ processing of cellulose nanocomposites

Published Date
Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing
April 2016, Vol.83:19–37, doi:10.1016/j.compositesa.2015.09.007
Special Issue on Biocomposites
Review

Author 

• Dipa Ray ^a,,
• Sunanda Sain ^b

• aMechanical, Aeronautical and Biomedical Engineering Department, Irish Centre for Composites Research (ICOMP), Materials and Surface Science Institute, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
• bDepartment of Polymer Science and Technology, University of Calcutta, India

Available online 3 October 2015.

Abstract

Nanocellulose has gained attention in recent times due to their light weight, high strength, stiffness, biodegradability and renewability. Natural fibres have been used as reinforcement in composites for past many years, but the use of nanocellulose as reinforcement in composites is relatively new. The main challenges of preparing nanocellulose based composites include (i) generation of nanocellulose from natural resources, (ii) production in larger scale, (iii) enhancing compatibility with hydrophobic polymers, and (iv) achieving uniform dispersion in polymer matrices. These challenges have encouraged researchers to innovate efficient processes and techniques to utilise the maximum benefit of such green nanoscopic materials. In situfabrication of cellulose nanocomposites is one such technique of achieving uniform nanocellulose dispersion in polymer matrices and obtaining a stronger filler/matrix interface. This review summarises the recent progress in the field of in situ processing of cellulose nanocomposites.

Keywords

A. Cellulose

A. Nanocomposites

B. Microstructures

D. Fractography

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• ⁎ 
  Corresponding author. Tel.: +353 61 234164; fax: +353 61 213529.
  
  

For further details log on website :
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359835X15003164

Upgrading flax nonwovens: Nanocellulose as binder to produce rigid and robust flax fibre preforms

Published Date
Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing
April 2016, Vol.83:63–71, doi:10.1016/j.compositesa.2015.11.021
Special Issue on Biocomposites

• Author 

• Marta Fortea-Verdejo ^a
• Koon-Yang Lee ^b
• Tanja Zimmermann ^c
• Alexander Bismarck ^a,d,,

• aPolymer and Composite Engineering Group (PaCE), Institute for Materials Chemistry & Research, Faculty of Chemistry, Universität Wien, Währinger Straße 42, 1090 Wien, Austria
• bThe Composites Centre, Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ London, United Kingdom
• cApplied Wood Materials Laboratory, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Ueberlandstrasse 129, CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
• dPolymer and Composite Engineering (PaCE) Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, SW7 2AZ London, United Kingdom

Available online 17 November 2015. 

Abstract

Typically in flax fibre nonwovens, the fibrous web is mechanically bonded (via entanglement and interlocking of fibres) or thermally bonded (by melting of polymer fibres). Recently, we showed that bacterial cellulose (BC) can be used as effective binder to produce rigid and robust natural fibre nonwovens without the need for polymer binders. Here, we further expand this work to manufacture flax nonwovens by utilising various types of (nano)cellulose, including nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC), BC and pulp fibres. Two preform manufacturing processes are investigated, namely single-step filtration and layer-by-layer filtration. Both BC and NFC serve as excellent binders for loose flax fibres due to their high surface area whilst pulp fibres are a poor binder for flax fibres. This is attributed to the low surface area of pulp compared to BC and NFC, which leads to a lower contact area between flax fibres and pulp. Furthermore, the larger fibre diameter of pulp results in a poorer packing efficiency and, therefore, a higher porosity of 67% compared to preforms made with BC or NFC as binder, which have a porosity of ∼60%. The manufactured preforms possess excellent tensile ( ,  ) and flexural (σ = 21.1 MPa, E = 2.2 GPa) properties. Layer-by-layer filtration process results in flax nonwovens, which exhibit even better tensile and flexural properties. This is hypothesised to be due to the better distribution of the fibrous nanocellulose network throughout the preform.

Keywords

A. Natural fibres

A. Biocomposite

A. Preform

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• ⁎ 
  Corresponding author at: Polymer and Composite Engineering Group (PaCE), Institute for Materials Chemistry & Research, Faculty of Chemistry, Universität Wien, Währinger Straße 42, 1090 Wien, Austria. Tel.: +43 (1) 4277 71301; fax: +43 (1) 4277 871302.

For further details log on website :
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1359835X15004315