Studies on Optimizing the Cryogenic Process for Recycling Plated Plastic to Achieve Improved Quality of Remolded Parts

Electroplated plastic from hubcaps was cryogenically ground and magnetically separated into a metallic and a recyclable plastic stream. A high purity plastic was achieved using a magnetic, multi-pass separation process. The ground plastic was pelletized and molded. The recycled samples revealed properties very similar to a pure, unprocessed resin and a unplated, control plastic which had been cryogenically ground and remolded. Only elongation properties of the plated and unplated, processed material degraded as compared to the pure resin. The favorable recycled resin performance warrants additional testing of electroplated plastics and investigating the benefits of incorporating varying percentages of this recycled material with virgin resin.