DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION OF RECYCLED POLYETHYLENE TEREPHTHALATE (RPET) FILLED WASTE SLATE DUST COMPOSITES

Abstract

Our planet's virgin resources are rapidly diminishing due to massive production and consumption, which is also causing pollutants to quickly accumulate in the manner of solid waste, especially in landfills. Two significant landfill constituents are discarded plastic products (bags, films, bottles, textiles) and waste produced during construction. Given the limited amount of space available in landfills, strategies that enable the use of these post-consumer products are imperative. According to the available literature, one-ton end product of slate could generate almost 30 tons of waste, leading to a high environmental impact. Whereas the slate waste contains significant amounts of the traditional filler components used to create polymer-based composites. By utilizing this waste as filler for polymers instead of purchasing new raw materials (which can be expensive), the manufacturers can save massive amounts of money. This study offers a viable and sustainable way to use these leftovers to make composite materials. The work aims to manufacture new environmentally friendly thermoplastic reinforced composites from post-consumed Polyethylene terephthalate and waste slate dust. This novel composite material is compounded using a twin-screw extruder followed by injection moulding with varying percentages of slate dust (0 to 20%) to fabricate specimens. Further, mechanical, thermal and morphological characterisation was performed to evaluate the composite's performance.