Effects of contaminants on spinnability of recycled plastic beverage bottles and recycled fiber properties

The objectives of this research were as follows: (1) To evaluate spinnability of postconsumer recycled HDPE bottles. (2) To evaluate the contaminant effects on spinnability of postconsumer recycled HDPE bottles. (3) To determine adequate melt spinning process conditions for production of fiber from postconsumer recycled HDPE bottles. (4) To determine the effect of contaminants on spinnability of postconsumer recycled PET bottles and maximum tolerable weight percentage of contaminant (PP). (5) To evaluate the tensile properties of recycled fibers. (6) To estimate the material cost to produce fibers from postconsumer recycled HDPE bottles.;The achieved results can be summarized as: (A) 3% PP contamination in recycled PET resin was maximum tolerable limit for melting spinning into fibers. Obtained fiber denier is 2.5. The fiber was proven useful with average breaking tenacity of 5.06 gram/Denier. (B) Postconsumer recycled HDPE was not suitable for melt spinning into fibers. By adding additives, the postconsumer recycled HDPE bottles could become spinnable and a fiber with average denier of 3.4 was obtained with 64% postconsumer recycled HDPE bottles. The fiber was proven useful with average breaking tenacity of 3.14 gram/Denier from a blend containing a maximum of 64% postconsumer recycled HDPE bottles.