Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-17-2024

Abstract

Modern plastics manufacturing by traditional methods can create a significant amount of waste plastic including sprues, runners, flash, trim, and out-of-spec parts. Transforming waste products into useful parts can significantly reduce the carbon footprint of the plastic industry. Plastics Engineering Technology laboratory activities at PSU generate copious amounts of waste plastic due to required hands-on coursework. This investigation focused specifically on reprocessing ABS waste material from thermoformed scoops generated in Part and Mold Design I. Our objective was to prove the viability of a circular process for ABS waste material by grinding the scrap, injection molding test coupons, extruding new sheets, and thermoforming new parts. This circularity-focused activity will be reproduced within PET processing labs to demonstrate the potential second life for waste material. To demonstrate the quality of reprocessed material, waste ABS was injection-molded into flexural and tensile test coupons to determine mechanical properties. Melt flow testing demonstrated changes in melt rheology. When compared to control ABS, we determined that there was a slight reduction in tensile and impact properties. We do not anticipate that the mechanical property reduction will negatively impact part performance. Subsequently, ABS sheets of varied thicknesses were extruded from ground waste ABS and thermoformed into new thermoformed parts. This lab exercise will demonstrate the ability of incorporating circularity concepts for plastics to reduce the amount of plastic waste generated in our lab activities as well as proving the viability of improved sustainability in manufactured plastic parts when PET students become members of the plastics industry.

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