Formation of recycled plastics from depolymerized monomers derived from waste fiber-reinforced plastics

To develop a new method for the chemical recycling of plastics, we examined the formation of recycled polymers from the recovered monomeric materials of solubilized waste fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP) under supercritical alcoholic conditions. Treatment of waste FRP with supercritical MeOH resulted in the formation of monomeric organic compounds that mainly contained dimethyl phthalate (DMP) and propylene glycol. The presence of these materials was confirmed by gas chromatography and nuclear magnetic resonance analyses and they were mixed with new DMP and glycols in various ratios to form unsaturated polyesters. The polymerization progressed successfully for all mixing ratios of the recovered and new DMP. Hardness tests on these recycled polymers indicated that the polymer made from a 1:1 mixture of recovered and new dimethyl phthalate had almost the same level of hardness as the polymers made from new materials. We also examined the formation of recycled FRP by using glass fibers and monomeric materials recovered through the present depolymerization method.