Use of Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene from Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment without an accurate previous separation

Abstract

The aim of this work it to develop recycling strategies for Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (ABS), coming from plastic WEEE stream, avoiding sorting by type. Self-compatibilization of ABS/HIPS blends, as well as the addition of Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene (SBS) as a compatibilizer to ABS/HIPS blends in order to improve mechanical properties, were studied. In this way, thermal behavior, mechanical performance and morphology of ABS/HIPS physical blends with two different proportions, 80/20 and 50/50, was analyzed comparatively with single ABS to assess self-compatibilization effectiveness. Obtained results indicate that ABS/HIPS self-compatibilization is effective. ABS can tolerate up to 50 wt% of HIPS conserving its properties with a slight improvement in ductility and strength. This allows a wider error in plastic sorting by type within plastic WEEE stream and consequently costs can be reduced. Same blends proportions with the addition of 2 wt% of SBS was also studied in comparison to their physical blends and single ABS. Mechanical properties of SBS-compatibilized blends were notably improved with respect to physical blends and consequently to ABS. Results are very promising for plastic WEEE recycling leading to a sustainable strategy that can promote the reuse of recycled ABS blended with other plastic WEEE instead of single ABS.