Composition analysis and characterization of waste polyvinyl chloride (PVC) recovered from data cables

Cables and wires are the indispensable parts of electronic equipments for transmission of both information and electricity. Nowadays, data cables are widely used in the computer equipments for sending information and they become waste once its life cycle is completed. However, recycling of cables and wires are mainly concentrating into the recovery of metals such as aluminium and copper, rather than other polymer present. Polymeric materials from the waste data cables are often disposed into landfills or incinerated, since they have only lower value in recycling yard. From the data cables collected, it has been estimated that the major constituents are copper (58.3%), polyvinyl chloride (19.9%) and polyethylene (16%). Similarly, polycarbonate (2.9%), silicon rubber (1.6%), steel (1.4%) and other material (0.4%) such as cotton cord were also present as minor components. Out of these, polyvinyl chloride is the dominant polymer present in data cables. Hence, the present work investigates the reprocessability of the polyvinyl chloride recovered from the data cables and deals with issues such as premature degradation during life cycle, assessment of plasticizers and degradation after reprocessing. Torque measurement studies using torque rheometer revealed further mechanical recycling possibilites of the recovered polyvinyl chloride. Besides, the applicability of melt blending technique for processing recovered polyvinyl chloride can be found out by analysing thermal behaviour by using thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry and heat distortion temperature.