An innovative remedy to transform plastic waste and used paper box into high-performance biocomposite

The accumulation of petroleum-based plastic waste is a growing environmental concern, thus an effective plastic waste recycling scheme is crucial. This study combined waste acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (ABS) plastics with waste delivery boxes to create ABS/paper biocomposites. Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) was utilised as the experimental variable, while two control groups were established to investigate varying ratios of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and paper. The results indicate that ABS/paper (CaCO3) 4:6 demonstrated a tensile strength of 47.81 MPa and a bending strength of 40.92 MPa. In contrast, ABS/paper (CaCO3) 7:3 exhibited a water absorption ratio of only 1.21% within 48 h. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that high-temperature melted ABS effectively filled the voids of interwoven cellulose during hot pressing. Furthermore, adding CaCO3 improved the flame retardancy of ABS/paper biocomposites and promoted the interweaving of celluloses. The ABS/paper biocomposites preparation method represents a viable solution to mitigate plastic pollution due to its environmentally-friendly, lightweight, and low energy consumption properties. & COPY; 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

The accumulation of petroleum-based plastic waste is a growing environmental concern. This study developed an effective plastic waste recycling scheme by creating ABS/paper biocomposites using waste ABS plastics and paper, with the addition of calcium carbonate to improve material properties. The experimental results showed that ABS/paper (CaCO3) 4:6 exhibited high mechanical strength, while ABS/paper (CaCO3) 7:3 had low water absorption. The study found that high-temperature melted ABS effectively filled the voids in the cellulose and the addition of calcium carbonate enhanced the flame retardancy of the material.