New methods for recycling plastic materials from end-of-life vehicles DENIS PANAITESCU*, MICHAELA IORGA*, ADRIANA CIUCU*, SEVER SERBAN*, AUGUSTIN CRUCEAN**, CRISTIANA BERCU* * National Institute of Research and Development in Chemistry and Petrochemistry Department of Polymers Bucharest, 202 Spl. Independentei, 060021 ROMANIA ** Research Institute for Auxiliary Organic Products Medias, 8 Carpati Street, 551022 ROMANIA panaitescu@icf.ro www.icechim.ro Abstract: - The consumption of plastic materials is now 20-times greater than 50 years ago. In the car industry plastic components are increasingly used to replace metal. Recycling of plastic materials from end-of-life vehicles (ELV) is still an unsolved problem. The most delicately problem in materials recycling from ELV is the sterile recovering, which in present is sent at the municipal waste, causing environmental problems. Some experimental results for recovering plastic materials from bumpers are presented in this paper. Different samples obtained from bumpers were analyzed and mechanical characterized for the identification of polymers and their level of mechanical strength and thermal stability. The recovered materials from ELV bumpers presented a still high level of mechanical strength and a still good thermal stability. New materials with interesting properties were obtained by compounding these samples with wood flower and virgin polymers. Key-Words: - plastic recycling, end-of-life vehicles, recycling technology, polypropylene, DSC analysis, FTIR 1 Introduction Plastic materials have been part of our world for a century and widely used for 50 years and, in this time, they have become integral to our modern lifestyles. This is a result of their remarkable advantages over traditional materials. Plastic materials can meet almost any requirement, the many different types of plastics offering a broad range of properties. They are easy to work and can be moulded in many ways - by extrusion, injection or press moulding, thermoforming, blowing, cutting, complex products being cast as a single piece using considerably less energy than corresponding components in metal. The amount of energy consumed during the manufacture of plastic is low compared with many other materials. Besides plastic materials saves resources replacing heavy materials with lighter plastic components in cars, trains, ships and aircraft and saving fuel. Plastic materials are strong in relation to their weight, their impact resistance and bending strength are high and they are often chosen in preference to metal. This applies in the car industry for example, where plastic components are increasingly being used to replace metal. Plastic materials require minimal maintenance, tolerating the effects of water and weather, the surface being not degraded by the effects of sun, frost or chemicals. They are resistant to solvents and many chemicals. Heat insulating, low friction, low weight, dielectric properties or electric conductivity depending on chemical compositions could be other advantages of these materials [1-2]. But despite plastic's usefulness, huge amounts of plastic wastes are collected every day, most of them being landfill, where it will take hundreds of years to break down. The recycling of plastic materials represents both a national and European priority because of the annual large quantity of wastes, long-term studies showing an increase of plastic materials usage in the future. In the world, the consumption of plastic materials is now 20-times greater than 50 years ago. Sources of plastic materials wastes are showed in Fig. 1. It can be notice that plastic materials from packaging, construction, transport, electrical and electronics hold the biggest weight from all the amount of plastic materials wastes. In 2007, more than 73 million motor vehicles, including cars and commercial vehicles WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on ENVIRONMENT and DEVELOPMENT Denis Panaitescu, Michaela Iorga, Adriana Ciucu, Sever Serban, Augustin Crucean, Cristiana Bercu ISSN: 1790-5079 1099 Issue 12, Volume 4, December 2008