A nually pproximately 12 million metric tons of plastic resins are processed anin the U.S. by more than 7000 plastics processing plants. Many types of resins, chemicals, and additives are combined to produde finished products through a variety of process operations such as adhesives production, coating, extrusion, film and sheet production, foam generation, lamination, and molding. Hughes et al...

By 2010, the worldwide annual production of plastics will surpass 300 million tons. Plastics are indispensable materials in modern society, and many products manufactured from plastics are a boon to public health (e.g., disposable syringes, intravenous bags). However, plastics also pose health risks. Of principal concern are endocrine-disrupting properties, as triggered for example by bisphenol...

Azoisobutylnitrile (AIBN) initiator was used in the treatment of most widely used domestic plastics in lieu of catalysts. The pyrolysis of low-density polyethylene (LDPE), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP), poly-ethylene terephthalate (PET) and polystyrene (PS) plastics with azoisobutylnitrile was carried out individually under nitrogen atmosphere. A series of single (plastic...

Plastic is a broad name given to different polymers with high molecular weight, which can be degraded by various processes. However, considering their abundance in the environment and their specificity in attacking plastics, biodegradation of plastics by microorganisms and enzymes seems to be the most effective process. When plastics are used as substrates for microorganisms, evaluation of thei...

A life cycle assessment was carried out to investigate the environmental benefits of removing dense plastics from household waste before burning the waste in an energy from waste (EfW) facility. Such a process was found to improve the climate change and non-renewable resource depletion impacts of the waste management system. A preliminary financial assessment suggests that the value of the plas...

Waste plastics are harmful, toxic, and non-biodegradable. Environmental impacts of waste plastics are raised concern about all over the world for safe and friendly environment. Due to dense population and environmental effects of the major city in the world dumping, incineration and land filling are faced difficulties and challenges. At this circumstances vast of waste plastics are remained vul...

Spherical void expansion in plastics and rubber-modified plastics is investigated under radial traction conditions. The plastics are modeled as elastic-plastic pressure-sensitive materials and the rubbers are modeled as nonlinearly elastic materials. First, the growth of a spherical void in an infinite plastic matrix is investigated under remote radial traction conditions. The results show that...

The majority of waste plastics currently produced are either landfilled or incinerated. Plastics do not readily degrade and toxic elements can be leached from the landfill. Combustion of waste plastics can generate environmentally hazardous air pollutants such as dioxins/furans, as well as undesirable carbon dioxide. Consequently, cost effective ways of recycling the increasing amounts of gener...