Recycling Of Waste Plastic Materials For The Production Of Ceiling Tiles Using Sawdust Reinforcement

ABSTRACT

Plastic was recognised as the most useful innovation in the 19th century by many scientists for its unique characteristics. However, it has become the biggest environmental hazard in the 20th century when it is disposed as waste. Plastic do not degrade naturally and when it is disposed in an ad hoc manner, it creates numerous environmental problems that can deteriorate the life of flora and fauna. Recycling is one of the most important actions currently available to reduce these impacts and represents one of the most dynamic areas in the plastics industry today. The principal aim of this study is to recycle plastic wastes with sawdust as an additive into a variety of products like plastic tiles (ceiling tile), which are Civil Engineering materials. Mainly, sachet water plastic wastes were collected for this experiment. The waste materials went through the process of sorting, washing, cutting, drying and pre-melting before dividing into different weight of 800grams, then recycling was done after heating to molten form and thoroughly mixing with different particle sizes of sawdust as additive. Melting was done using locally fabricated box furnace. The sawdust was sieved using sieves 6, 8, 10, 14 and 25 which represented 6.25, 12.50, 18.75, 25.00 and 31.25% respectively of sawdust to 800grams of plastic. After thoroughly mixing the sawdust with the molten plastic, it was then casted into the mould and left to completely cool and in some cases left till the next day before removal from the mould to form the plastic tile. Tensile and hardness tests were done on the materials; the tensile strength test results varied as they showed higher tensile stress for some and low for others. Hardness survey test was conducted at different points on each material and the results showed that strength not uniformly distributed over all points of the tile and this result faulted the recycling process. Engineering properties of the recycled materials were compared with existing local and foreign tiles respectively and from the results, some of the produced materials matched the qualities of the local tile and was even better than the foreign tiles. Therefore, with improved recycling process plastic wastes can be converted into useful products for the betterment of the environment.