Closed-loop recycling. A case study of films for greenhouses

The degradation undergone by plastic films used for greenhouse coverage is the main cause of the worsening of the processability, of the mechanical properties and of the durability of secondary materials obtained by their recycling. This means that this secondary material cannot be processed to produce films for the same applications (closed-loop recycling).In this work different strategies are proposed to improve the processability, some mechanical properties and the resistance to photo-oxidation of these secondary materials. In particular, homopolymer blends or multilayer films where the secondary material is used in combination with virgin polymer give the best results.