Mechanical properties of profiles from recycled agricultural plastic waste mixed with wood powder.

In recent years the concern about plastic waste from agriculture has raised significantly. A growing social and political awareness on environmental issues has led to laws and regulations aimed at controlling and reducing waste production, encouraging recycling and reuse as well. The mechanical recycling of polymers determines a loss of some of their original chemical, physical and mechanical properties due to the role played by some of the degradation factors (UV radiation, thermal stress, agrochemicals etc.) that they were subjected to during their working life. The properties of the regenerated material can however be improved through the addition in the plastic mixture of other material, such as wood, glass, calcium etc. In this paper, the properties of plastic profiles obtained through mechanical recycling of agricultural plastic material mixed with wood powder (70% LDPE + 30% wood powder) were analyzed. The results of the tensile, compression and bending tests here reported show that the mixture of recycled plastic from agricultural application with a suitable different material could be considered as an interesting option for the improvement of the mechanical characteristics of these new regenerated products.