Recycling of EPDM

What is it about?

Polypropylene (PP)–waste elastomer blends are particularly attractive as an economical way of producing sustainable materials, relieving the stress on the environment. Although PP is a commodity thermoplastic finding employment in various applications, its relatively low impact strength might be a significant factor limiting the variety of uses in many industries. Extensive consumption of thermoset elastomers has been a worldwide waste disposal problem. Here, we describe a facile, economical method for reuse of waste ethylene-propylene-diene monomer (EPDM) rubber to produce impact resistant blend materials with the PP via a high-shear thermokinetic mixer. In these blends, waste EPDM was used in various concentrations ranging from 20 to 80 wt%, as the remaining part, PP acts as a carrier matrix or a physical binder depending on the concentration in the blend. Briefly, fivefold increase was achieved in the impact resistance of PP by the addition of 60 wt% EPDM waste. The blend with 80 wt% waste EPDM shows characteristics similar to a thermoplastic elastomer. The conclusion of the study is that the blending method is quite effective to produce high-performance blend materials consisting of high concentrations of thermoset waste which addresses the worldwide disposal problem of waste thermoset rubbers.

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Why is it important?

The importance of this work is that it demonstrates an efficient route in recycling a thermoset rubber and underlines how the mechanical and thermal behaviour of EPDM/PP composites changes with respect to waste loading. It is especially important for automotive industry.