Mechanical characterization of recycled polypropylene for automotive industry

The automotive industry is now responsible for a large share of plastic consumption, which prompted increasing investments in recycling processes, also due to the need of ambient protection. Among the automotives parts, bumpers are relatively easy to be recycled due to their dimensions and because they are made of a single material, polypropylene (PP). In this work, the mechanical properties of mixtures of virgin and recycled PP, in three different percentages, were analyzed in order to detect alterations and associate them with the product quality. It was concluded that percentages of recycled material above 30% deteriorate the mechanical properties of the product. This study aims to provide a contribution to the increase in the recycled plastic use in the automotive industry.