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WEATHERABILITY OF ENHANCED DEGRADABLE PLASTICS
Citation:
Andrady, A. L. WEATHERABILITY OF ENHANCED DEGRADABLE PLASTICS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-93/162 (NTIS 93-229789), 1993.
Description:
The main objective of this study was to assess the performance and the asociated variability of several selected enhanced degradable plastic materials under a variety of different exposure conditions. Other objectives were to identify the major products formed during degradation and to assess the preliminary toxicity of such products, arid to determine the effect of the enhanced degradable plastic material on the quality of recycled products. Several commercially available materials, including both photodegradable and biodeteriorable plastics were chosen for inclusion in this study. Exposure scenarios consisted of outdoor direct exposure, soil burial, and marine and freshwater exposure. Laboratory exposure scenarios consisted of accelerated weathering and lab accelerated soil burial. Results of this study showed the elongation at break and the energy to break to be the test parameters most sensitive to weathering induced changes.