The balance of crosslinking and scission reactions in polyolefin chains when exposed to free-radical, environmental conditions may result in good properties and new applications. Discarded, post-consumer high quality materials are more and more attractive for recycling. The plastic residues from food packages and large dimension automobile residues, as car bumpers, are good examples of those materials. In the present work, we report mechanical properties of IMAWOOD®, plastic lumber from urban solid waste, mostly PE packaging residues, and IMACAR, from discarded car bumpers, mainly PP/EPDM blends. IMAWOOD® showed improved mechanical behavior after gamma-irradiation. IMACAR® was highly resistant to impact.
Recycled plastics; recovered plastics; polyethylene blends; gamma-radiation; mechanical performance; car bumpers
