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Updated: Sep 29, 2025

The Effect of Construction and Demolition Waste Plastic Fractions on Wood-Polymer Composite Properties
Published on: June 7, 2020
Towards Circular Economy by the Valorization of Different Waste Subproducts through Their Incorporation in Composite
Xavier Colom1, Javier Cañavate1, Fernando Carrillo-Navarrete1,2
1Department of Chemical Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Cataluna-BarcelonaTECH, Colom 1, 08222 Terrassa, Barcelona, Spain.
Abstract:
Incorporation of residua into polymeric composites can be a successful approach to creating materials suitable for specific applications promoting a circular economy approach. Elastomeric (Ground Tire Rubber or GTR) and biogenic (chicken feathers or CFs) wastes were used to prepare polymeric composites in order to evaluate the tensile, acoustic and structural differences between both reinforcements. High-density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP) and ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) polymeric matrices were used. EVA matrix defines better compatibility with both reinforcement materials (GTR and CFs) than polyolefin matrices (HDPE and PP) as it has been corroborated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), termogravimetric analysis (TGA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). In addition, composites reinforced with GTR showed better acoustic properties than composites reinforced with CFs, due to the morphology of the reinforcing particles.
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