Recovering high density polyethylene waste to produce permanent plastic floor tiles

Abstract

This work aims to find effective alternative for waste and mainly plastic by designing tiles with better water absorption resistance, good mechanical properties and reduced flammability performance. Waste has generally increased by population increase, and in recent years plastic waste has increased dramatically due to its superior properties becoming a problem threatening the entire ecosystem. Recovering plastic waste seems the only available solution and can be done through recycling process. In this study, thermoplastic waste is used as a bonding matrix for fly-ash and sand. The tiles are produced through preparing the raw material first, melting and mixing the plastic with sand and fly-ash then molded through a compression molding technique with a compression force of 0.545 MPa. The composite tiles are analyzed for their mechanical properties and characteristics. It is found that the increase of fly-ash content in the composites tiles reduces their density and their water absorption resistance. A maximum flexural strength of 15.3 MPa for 25 % fly-ash content due of appropriate mixing ratio, and minimum flexural strength of 4.2 MPa for 45% fly-ash content due to its saturation of fly-ash. The study indicates that a relatively simple production method can produce thermoplastic composite tiles which can be an alternative to the current one.