Evaluation of alternative, sustainable polymer materials in regard to mechanical properties and sustainability

Sammanfattning: We live in a world where products are consumed at an ever increasing rate, and where responsibility for the waste created is seldom taken. Plastics are in many ways wondrous materials, but they put a big strain on the environment, both in production and as waste. Alternatives to the conventional, virgin fossil-based plastics have been available and emerging for some time now, for example seen in the recycling of PET bottles. The industry has been hesitant to implement them in engineering applications though, fearing they might not be up to standard. In this project, biobased and recycled plastics, both normal and fiber-reinforced, have been compared to the currently used plastics in a small IT product. The plastics have been compared through mechanical compression tests and standardized impact tests, thermal aging and exposure to detrimental environments. The study was also complemented with a comparative Life-cycle assessment considering both energy consumption and carbon footprint. The result has been that the recycled plastics not only out-performed the biobased and conventional plastics in the tests, but also had the lowest environmental impact of the three categories. The biobased plastic performed worse than the other in the tests, but was still above the normal requirements for what was acceptable in the products, and a close second in environmental impact.