Abstract

In Bangladesh, millions of waste high density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic containers have been thrown away annually in open places including rivers. In this work we investigate the feasibility of recycling and reusing HDPE plastics materials. This paper represents the preparation and characterization of jute-mat reinforced composites incorporated into recycled HDPE. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of Jute fibers addition on the performance of the fiber-reinforced composites. Composites consisting recycled HDPE and bleached jute-mat were prepared using hot compression molding at 145°C. The mechanical and physical properties of composites were measured as a function of fiber loading (up to 25 wt %) and compared. Tensile strength, young modulus, flexural strength, tangent modulus and hardness of the recycled HDPE composites increased with the increment of fiber addition but start to decrease after 20 wt % incorporation of jute-mat fiber. Thermal analysis of the composites revealed that the thermal stability of recycled HDPE/jute-mat composites is moderate.