Tracking the Fate of Additives in Recycled Plastics through Multiple Simulated Life Cycles
Research question: What are the technical, quality, safety, and migration impacts of recycling Polypropylene multiple times?
Most companies have made sustainability commitments that will require a rapid adoption of higher concentrations of recycled plastics. This will eventually result in plastics that have served multiple service life cycles. However, there are numerous knowledge gaps regarding the influence of the number of life cycles on the fate of additives and their influence on physical properties. The proposed research will utilize virgin and material recovery facility post-consumer plastics to increase the understanding of the physical and chemical property changes and migration potential as a function of simulated life cycles via mechanical recycling for both post-consumer and post-industrial polypropylene. Many research studies have demonstrated that physical properties of virgin/PCR blends follow the law of mixtures, therefore, the proposed research will focus on 100% recycled plastic for the simulated life cycles. A key knowledge gap that will be addressed is understanding the change in diffusion properties of additives and their accumulation as a function of life cycles and changes in plastic molecular structure.
Deliverables:
- Identification of key physical attributes that can indicate recycled plastic quality for polypropylene (PP)
- Monitor physical and chemical changes of material recovery facility sourced plastics PP as a function of simulated life cycles. Differences will be compared to virgin PP undergoing the same treatments.
- Determine changes in migrant diffusion coefficients of material recovery facility sourced PP as a function of simulated life cycles.
Institution: Polymer and Food Protection Consortium, Iowa State University
Primary Investigator: Greg Curtzwiler, PhD
Year: 2025
This effort is supported by IAFNS Food Packaging Safety & Sustainability Committee
