Facile methodology for upcycling and recycling of PE and PP blends

Plastics is essential to modern life every day. In the past 50 years, humans have produced over 8000 million metric tons of plastic, in which >50% is lost to the environment. Plastics disposal is a long-term environmental challenge since the reusing/recycling/upcycling of plastics is extremely low. Mix plastics at materials recovery facilities rarely make it into a value cycle that can displaces virgin materials due to their inhomogeneity which results in a loss of polymer properties and the difficulty associated with processing. Polyethylene and polypropylene are the largest volume plastics used globally and are non-miscible with each other which renders this mixture inadequate for any further value-added application. RoCo Global has developed an ionic liquid additive which compatibilizes mixed plastics and significantly improves its properties. Thus, this approach offers the opportunity to replace virgin plastics with recycled materials in traditional or other high-value applications. In this work, RoCo Global will perform the extrusion of PE, PP and IL and will complete performance testing of the prototypes in order to demonstate that the compatibilization approach using ionic liquids is facile and superior compared to the current state-of-the-art technology. If successful, key benefits include energy saving by reducing the consumption of fossil feedstocks and the need for new plastic production, economic and environmental.