Microbiome Development of Seawater-Incubated Pre-production Plastic Pellets Reveals Distinct and Predictive Community Compositions

Plastics of various chemistries pollute global water bodies. Toxic chemicals leach with detrimental and often unpredictable impacts on the surrounding ecosystems. We found that seawater leachates of plastic pre-production pellets from 7 recycle categories are acutely toxic to stage II barnacle nauplii; lethal concentration 50 (LC50s) were observed in 24-h leachates from dilutions ranging from 0.007 to 2.1 mg/mL of seawater. Based on previous observations that macro-organismal settlement on fouling management coatings of various toxicities can be used to predict the toxicity of the coating, we hypothesized that interaction of plastic pre-production pellets with emerging microbiomes would exhibit patterns indicative of the chemistry at the pellet surface. We used amplicon sequencing of bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA genes to characterize the microbiomes that developed from 8 through 70 days on pellets exposed to the same flowing ambient seawater. Diversity and composition of the microbiomes colonizing plastic pellets changed over time and varied with plastic type. Microbial taxa belong to taxonomic groups known to consume hydrocarbons, to be prevalent following marine oil spills, or to live on fouling management surfaces. Microbiomes were still distinct between plastic types at Day 70, suggesting that differences in the physicochemical characteristics of the underlying plastics continue to exert variable selection of surface microbial communities. A random forest-based sample classifier correctly predicted 93% of plastic types using microbiome compositions. Surface microbiomes have promise for use in forensically identifying plastic types and potential toxicities.

THE PHYSICOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RECYCLED-PLASTIC PELLETS OBTAINED FROM DISPOSABLE FACE MASK WASTES

THE PHYSICOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RECYCLED-PLASTIC PELLETS OBTAINED FROM DISPOSABLE FACE MASK WASTES. The government policy to wear a face mask during the COVID-19 pandemic has increased disposable face mask wastes. Thus, to reduce such wastes, it is necessary to evaluate the physicochemical characteristics of disposable face masks wastes before the recycling process and the recycled products. In this study, physicochemical characterization of the 3-ply disposable face masks and the recycled plastic pellets after disinfection using 0.5% v/v sodium hypochlorite were evaluated. A set of parameters including the characterization of surface morphology by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), functional groups properties by a fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermal behavior by a differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), tensile strength and elongation at break were evaluated. The surface morphological of each layer 3-ply disposable face mask showed that the layers were composed of non-woven fibers. The FT-IR evaluation revealed that 3-ply disposable face mask was made from a polypropylene. At the same time, the DSC analysis found that the polypropylene was in the form of homopolymer. The SEM analysis showed that the recycled plastic pellets showed a rough and uneven surface. The FT-IR, tensile strength and elongation at break of the recycled plastic pellets showed similarity with a virgin PP type CP442XP and a recycled PP from secondary recycling PP (COPLAST COMPANY). In summary, recycling 3-ply disposable face mask wastes to become plastic pellets is recommended for handling disposable face mask wastes problem.

Pengaruh Produk, Harga, Bahan Baku Bagi Penjualan Di PT. Hon Chuan Indonesia Periode 2015-2019

The increasing of plastic industry growth in Indonesia have bump-up potential of plastic pellets requirement as well, which the nature source of plastic pellets itself restricted and limited. Those will impact to plastic pellets import high demand especially for food and beverages area who use them. Strict competition and challenges to the restriction of plastic raw material usage need attention on product, price, raw material, and impact to the sales. The purpose of this study was to describe of product, price, raw material, and impact to sales, analyze the correlation value and the effect among them. This study was conducted use quantitative research method with descriptive approach and survey method. This study conducted in PT. Hon Chuan Indonesia with 118 respondents as representative from their customer data. Based on research result marketing strategy, product, price, raw material, and sales was in approve category descriptively. And it has 1) a fairly strong and strong correlation range between product and price, 2) significant positive partially effect between product, price, and raw material 3) simultaneously effect between product, price, and raw material 4) influence between raw material and sales.

Mechanical Properties of Commercial Recycled Polypropylene from Plastic Waste

In Indonesia increasing the use of plastic will increase plastic waste because waste management in Indonesia is still poor. Plastics can be recycled and used to make plastic bags, toys and various household utensils, but their use is still very limited. This limitation is because the strength of recycled plastic is not as good as virgin plastic pellets, so the resulting product tends to be brittle. This study aims to determine the mechanical properties of plastics made from recycled polypropylene plastic. Five specimens are made according to the ASTM D 638 type II standard. The results show that yield strength is 16.357±2.65 MPa, elastic modulus 295,926 ± 41,97 MPa and ultimate tensile stress 19,701±1,261 MPa. The yield stress of recycled polypropylene has a lower value than the yield stress on recycled polypropylene studied by Abdelhaleem et.al or Barbosa et.al which is around 21 MPa[7][5]. This difference is possible due to the different quality of raw materials and processing.

Effect of Repetitive Recycling on the Optical Properties of Polypropylene Based on Material Value Conservation Paradigm

Good quality of plastic packaging waste has the potential to be recycled, as it can be used as raw material for the next packaging products. Recycling is preeminent due to the grave necessity of decreasing plastic production rate, especially for packaging industries which are known to use more plastic compared to other sectors. Material value conservation is a new paradigm which can be implemented through a new category of design for recycling in order to avoid value degradation. Implementations of this paradigm has produced better quality processed plastic waste with higher selling price. Applied with this paradigm, recycled plastic pellets can be a viable alternative as raw material based on its mechanical properties, even after the 8th stage of recycling. This study aims to reveal the effect of repetitive recycling on the optical properties of polypropylene with implementation of material value conservation paradigm, to strengthen previous evidence of the implementation of the material value conservation paradigm on plastic packaging whether repetitive recycling plastic packaging can be a viable alternative as raw material based on its optical properties. Optical properties observed in this research were based on the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards, which are consisted of colour (ASTM D2244), gloss (ASTM D2457) and transparency (ASTM D1746). The result of this study indicated that even after the 8th stage of recycling, plastic pellet of polypropylene still can be a viable alternative as raw material based on its optical properties, with more attention on transparency property.

Optical Properties Improvement of Recycled Polypropylene with Material Value Conservation Schemes Using Virgin Plastic Blends

Repetitive implementation of material value conservation (MVC) in plastic packaging may lead to good quality plastic waste and high acceptance for secondary recycling. This makes the obtained recycled plastic pellets has good quality and can be used as an alternative raw material for new products. However, treatments and processing in the recycling processes can lead to the degradation of material properties and disrupt the recycled plastics life cycle to be used for new products with high specifications. Recycled plastics are certainly cheaper than virgin plastics, but they have low properties, contaminated, and are only used for low-value products. Therefore, a solution is needed for this problem. This study proposed mixing recycled and virgin plastic pellets to improve recycled plastics whose optical properties have been subjected to quality degradation. A series of tests were carried out on specimens and tested according to the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) method. The optical properties tested were transparency, gloss, and colour. This study revealed that optical properties had an increasing trend along with the large number of virgin plastic pellets added to the blends. The optimal composition was found in the 50:50 composition of virgin-recycled plastic pellets to the 70:30 composition of virgin-recycled plastic pellets. These findings can be useful in improving the optical properties of recycled plastics. In addition, the widespread implementation of MVC can improve the quality of plastic waste and strengthen its acceptance for secondary recycling.

STUDY OF DEFECT ON LLDPE PLUG FOR TELON OIL PRODUCTS USING A HAITIAN MOLDING INJECTION MACHINE 1600MA AT PT X

The type of plastic packaging that is popular among the public is bottle packaging, plastic bottle packaging always has a bottle cap. Some people only know that the part of the bottle cap is only on the outer cap, even though the plastic bottle cap consists of two types, namely the outer cap (cap) and the inner cap (plug). The plastic material used to make the plug is Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE), a telon oil plug is produced using an injection molding machine, by inserting plastic pellets into the hopper and then heating it by the barrel, plastic pellets that have melted will be injected into the mold ( print). In the process of making the telon oil plug, a defect was found. From the observation, it is known that several types of defects that occur during the LLDPE oil plug production process include black dot, flashing, and unmould / short shot. Defects that occur during the telon oil plug production process are caused by damage, contamination, and mismatches in the engine parameter settings. The purpose of this study is to determine the causes and solutions of defects that occur in LLDPE telon oil plugs with the HAITIAN 1600MA injection molding machine at PT X. Some solutions are made to reduce defects that occur in telon oil LLDPE plugs is to clean the material reservoir, repair or replace the mold, clean the hopper before loading the material, and set up the barrel parameter 180-230oC, inject pressure 60 bar, holding pressure 30 bar, speed 17.8 seconds.