Abstract:
After primary uses of the plastic product, most developing countries like Ethiopia are facing a
shortage of post consumers disposal waste sites and it became a very serious problem on
environmental pollution due to its non-biodegradability nature. For this reason, regenerating
and using the waste product as resources and reducing environmental pollutions is a great
opportunity. This research aims at the manufacturing of composite materials from waste
Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) bottles reinforced with glass fibers and filled with waste
glass powder for floor tile applications. The tile composites were prepared by melt-mixing
method followed by compression molding. The effect of filler, fiber and PET matrix loading
on the composite were investigated using their tensile, compression, flexural, impact hardness
and water absorption tests. The sample was characterized using a universal testing machine,
Charpy impact testing machine and Rockwell hardness testing machine. PerkinElmer FTIR,
DSC and TGA instrument also used. For this, it was prepared eleven samples by varied the
glass fiber weight % from 0 to 10, PET matrix weight % from 70 to 85 and glass powder filler
weight % from 5 to 20. The measurement results of the composite were a maximum tensile
strength (81.625MPa), flexural strength(1067.59MPa) and impact strength (5.11J/cm2
) are
recorded at 10 %weight of glass fiber, 85 %weight of PET matrix and 5 %weight of window
glass filler. The maximum compressive strength is 1876.14MPa at 10 % weight glass fiber,
70wt% PET matrix and 20wt% window glass filler. The maximum Rockwell hardness
(184.2HR) and the minimum water absorption (0.048%) are also recorded at 0 weight % of
glass fiber, 80 weight % of PET matrix and 20 weight% of window glass filler. Based on this,
it can be concluded that the tensile strength, flexural strength and impact strength increased
with increased weight % of glass fiber and decreased with increased window glass filler. The
compressive strength, Rockwell hardness increased and the water absorption decreased with
increased weight % of window glass filler.
Keywords: PET Waste Bottles, Recycling, waste window glass, Glass fibers Composite,
Tensile strength, Compressive strength, Flexural strength, Impact strength, Hardness Strength,
Water Absorptio