THE USE OF THERMOGRAVIMETRY TO ANALYZE A MIXED PLASTIC WASTE STREAM

The thermogravimetry of a mixed polymer waste stream has been studied and the weight-loss behaviour of this heterogeneous mixture has been compared with results obtained from the weight-loss curves of some individual polymers. The results suggest that the behaviour of the mixture cannot be predicted by the simple additive behaviour of the individual polymers since interactions can occur which influence the degradation weight-loss profiles. The heterogeneous polymeric waste studied was that generated from the shredding of old discarded automobiles. The results of the study indicate that while it is possible to determine what is present in a sample, the relevance of the data to a very heterogeneous waste stream is questionable.