OPTIMIZATION OF HIGH DENSITY POLYETHYLENE PRISTINE BLENDING PROCESS WITH HIGH DENSITY POLYETHYLENE FROM WASTE WATER BOTTLE CAP MINERAL

• Main Author: Sunardiyansyah, Endang
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/46253
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Plastic is a solid material consisting of mixture of polymer and additive substances which having good formability properties. High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) is one of polymer that commercially used as plastic products. Production of HDPE plastic reached around 52 million tons in 2017, from that total production volume, the 55% of waste of after usage is dumped to landfill site without further processing, 25% was incinerated and only 20% was recycled. Blending process was commonly conducted by mixing pristine HDPE resin to reduce the viscosity. This research was conducted to reduce the volume of unused mineral bottle cap waste. In this research, blending process was conducted between wasted bottled mineral water cap with new HDPE resin pellets (pristine) with weight fraction composition varied around 10% to 90%. Blending process was done using simple injection molding machine with processing temperature around 150°C – 210°C. Tensile testing was performed to evaluate the tensile strength and tensile modulus of blended waste bottled mineral water cap and pristine HDPE. Based on the result, Pristine HDPE and mineral water bottle cap HDPE are having window processing temperature around 170°C and 180°C respectively. Optimum tensile strength is 22.17 MPa with processing temperature in 170°C which obtained in 50% compsition of waste plastic. Optimum tensile modulus is 188.7 MPa with processing temperature 170°C which also obtained in 50% composition of waste plastic. From the testing result can be concluded that blended HDPE is having optimum processing temperature and recycled plastic composition in 170°C and 50% respectively, which also no signs of defect are observed.