The Science Academy, the Teacher Academy and the High School for Health Professions. We are located approximately seven miles north of the Mexican border along the Rio Grande River. Laboratory experiments are constantly evoking with the latest addition being CBL's. The research program I participated in this summer was funded by EPA and involves the recycling of low quality thermoplastics and by-product to keep them out of landfills. Thus, the objective is to prevent the land-fill disposal of plastics and our strategy is to blend and test new materials made from recycled plastics aimed at new markets.
Plastics are inherently recyclable because they can be melted again and reformed.
There is some degradation of properties each time and the material is also contaminated after blending with fillers, antioxidant, colors, etc. It is a tacky material that is difficult to process. The recycled HDPE is ground-up milk jugs and is contaminated with paper pieces, ink, etc. Its properties are inconsistent when pure HDPE's crystalline and very strong and the APP is ductile. By extruding these two materials together, we hope to attain the correct morphology to enhance the properties of both materials.