Morphology and properties of recycled polyethylene/ground tyre rubber/thermoplastic poly(ester-urethane) blends

The growing amount of plastics waste produced every year resulted in development of mechanical and chemical recycling methods of polymers and their blends or composites. From the environmental point of view, the possibility of plastics waste reusing and recycling is desirable. In this study three polymer blends were obtained with using recycled polyethylene (RPE), ground tyre rubber (GTR) and thermoplastic poly(ester-urethane) (TPU). The reference samples, without TPU, were also made. The mass ratio of RPE to GTR was the same in each prepared materials. The morphology and selected mechanical properties of prepared polymer systems were investigated. It was found that increasing amount of TPU in polymer blends resulted in decreasing of tensile properties, rebound resilience and abrasion resistance of the final materials. Microstructural analysis showed that material breaks at interface between GTR and RPE or TPU, during the static tensile test.