Recycling of expanded polystyrene from packaging

Abstract

Expanded polystyrene (EPS) is a commonly used polymer in the packaging industry. The great importance of EPS recovery is related to the material's short service life and the high volume of EPS waste. The aim of the present work was to reduce the volume of waste by its mechanical milling and crushing and subsequent reintroduction into mass production. The results of thermal and infrared analysis indicate that the material does not degrade duringthe recovery process; indeed, the thermal properties of the recycled material are even better than those of the virgin product. Tensile tests showedthat the recycled and virgin materials have similar mechanical behaviour. From the results obtained we can conclude that recycled polystyrene can replace virgin polystyrene in some industrial processing, thus reducing the cost of the final product. © Smithers Rapra Technology, 2010.