Properties of recycled plastic films obtained from protected cultivation

Plastic materials have a wide range of application in agriculture, especially horticulture but their use causes high quantities of post-consume material that needs to be dealt with in such way that will not cause negative effect on the landscape and agro-ecosystem. In this paper the results of investigating the possibilities to produce a new regenerated film through mechanical recycling, from post-consume agricultural plastic films, are analyzed. Six recycled films made from tunnel and greenhouse covering material and HDPE from agrochemical packaging have been extruded and subjected to mechanical and spectro-radiometric tests. The results of the tensile tests show that the values of the maximum resistance varied from 12.38 to 40.45 N mm-2. The values of the elongation at break varied in a wide range (144 – 350). All films showed quite similar spectro-radiometric characteristics. Transitivity of PAR radiation varied from 73.9 to 84.1%.