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Sample Literature Review

The document is a literature review from the Philippine Science High School Cagayan Valley Campus exploring ways to reduce the environmental impact of plastic waste. It discusses recycling plastics into materials like tiles and asphalt additives. It also examines creating biodegradable plastics from natural algal polysaccharides as an alternative to conventional plastics. The review finds that recycling plastic waste and developing bioplastic resins from algae can help address the growing plastic pollution problem.

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Jerico Bayod
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103 views

Sample Literature Review

The document is a literature review from the Philippine Science High School Cagayan Valley Campus exploring ways to reduce the environmental impact of plastic waste. It discusses recycling plastics into materials like tiles and asphalt additives. It also examines creating biodegradable plastics from natural algal polysaccharides as an alternative to conventional plastics. The review finds that recycling plastic waste and developing bioplastic resins from algae can help address the growing plastic pollution problem.

Uploaded by

Jerico Bayod
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PHILIPPINE SCIENCE HIGH SCHOOL

Cagayan Valley Campus


Masoc, Bayombong, Nueva Viscaya

Literature Review:
Reducing the Environmental Impact of Plastic by Recycling or
By Creating A Biodegradable Alternative
I. Introduction

Plastic is one of the most used materials today, this is due to it's high
tensile and compressive strength but also its ability to last which sounds good
for us but not for the environment because most of it are only used once. In
fact, one of the most pressing problems confronting humanity is how we
managed the disposal of plastics. In the Philippines alone, waste management
is a very big problem. Most specifically in metro manila wherein there is a
tragedy in Payatas which killed hundreds when one dumpsite collapsed due
to waste overloading (Caguingin et al, 2003).
To reduce the hazardous effect of plastic to the environment we proposed
two ways to solve the problem of waste management. The first solution is to
use discarded plastics to make different materials like asphalt aggregate, fuel
and composite material with high compressive strenght. The second solution
is to make an Biodegradable alternative of plastic using natural algal
polysacharides.

II. Review of Related Literature

A) Plastics
Plastics are polymer made by joining together many small
molecules into one giant molecule or macro molecule. The
molecules used to synthesize polymers are called monomers.
There are two main types of plastic. One type of plastics is
thermoplastic. It can be melted into fluid plastic and remolded. A
second type is thermoset plastic which have a one way chemical
reaction. Thermoset plastics normally filled with reinforcing
materials such as glass or carbon fibers (Canguin et al, 2003).
For every proposed recycling solutions, thermoplastics was
used due to its abundance, cost, and property to be melted and
remolded again. Several types of thermoplastic was used. This
thermoplastics are high density polyethylene (HPDE), linear low
density polyethylene (LLDPE), and low density polyethylene
(LDPE). HDPE is a polyethylene with low degree of short chain
branching, LLDPE is a polyethylene with high degree of short
chain branching, and LDPE is a polyethylene with high degree of
long and short chain branching (Bumanlag et al, 2014).

B) Asphalt

Asphalt is a bituminous material, which can be soften and


applied on concrete road. Asphalt can be used with concrete
road to provide traction and also reduce the cost of maintenance
and building. Asphalt is commonly used together with
aggregates to improve strength and traction (Betheliza et al,
2003).
A study was conducted in Philippine Science High School –
Cagayan Valley Campus by Maria Betheliza L. Canguingin and
her team to determine the effect of using different thermoplastics
as asphalt aggregates at it resulted to a positive result in terms of
bulk specific gravity and compressive strength compared to pure
ashpalt.

C) Fuels

Fuels are any material that are stores potential energy that
can be used used using combustion. The most commonly used
form of fuels is liquid fuel which are made by distillation of fossil
fuels. Fossil fuels are energy rich material formed from long
buried plants and micro organism (Interior, 2014).

D) Pyrolysis

Pyrolisys is the chemical decomposition of of condensed


organic substances by heating (Interior, 2014). It is the first
chemical reaction that occurs in the combustion of wood, coal, or
any solid fuel source. This is a process mimicking the earth in
breaking down carbon into fuel using high temperature which
normally takes million of years in nature.
A study was conducted in Philippine Science High School –
Cagayan Valley Campus by Jasmine Interior to determine if
usable fuel can be created from plastic using the process of
pyrolysis. The created fuel passed every test the researcher
prepare but for us the produced fuel is not useful as the
researcher spent 8 hours using other fuel to burn 2kg of LDPE
to produce 257ml of fuel which is not that useful.
E) Composite Material

Composite Materials are materials that are composed of two


or more material that are physically and chemically distinct. A
characterizing property of composite materials is that the
constituent materials do not dissolve each other when mixed and
processed (Bumanlag, 2014).
A past study was conducted by another Philippine Science
High School – Cagayan Valley Campus Alumni to study the
compressive strength of a composite material using Chicken
Bone and Linear Low Density Polyethylene and found out that
pure LLDPE have the highest compressive strength compared to
the LLDPE composite material with 40% and 60% chicken
bones. We are rejecting this material as it doesn’t solve the
problem of increasing plastic waste even though plastic are
recycled because this material will only increase the popularity of
using plastics.

F) Tiles

Tile are thin slab of glazed or unglazed fired clay used


structurally or decoratively on floors, walls, and roofs;
sometimes, by extension, thin slabs of glass, plastic, stone,
asphalt, or acoustically absorbent material such as asbestos
(Corpuz et al, 2009).
A study show that using sand together with plastic make it
stronger in terms of compressive strength. This study also shows
that it can easily created without the requirement of special
apparatus like oven (Corpuz et al, 2009).

G) Natural Algal Polysaccherides

Phycocolloids are the natural polysaccharides that are found


from both brown and red algae. These are gelatinous starch-like
chemicals that are capable to form viscous gels. They are
extracted from the cell walls of certain seaweeds and mainly for
their colloidal properties, examples include agar, alginate, and
carageenan (Domingo, 2012).

H) Biomass Plastic

Bio plastics are forms of plastics that are made from


renewable biomass sources like starch, polyactide acid and poly-
3-hydroxybutyrate. These plastics are based on the concept of
the natural cycle of matter and they promote an intelligent,
cascading handling of natural resources with less waste and less
emissions of greenhouse gases . Most bioplastics are being
engineered to be biodegradable meaning that they will
aerobically biodegrade into substances that blend harmlessly
with the soil (Domingo, 2012).
A study was conducted in Philippine Science High School –
Cagayan Valley Campus by Justin Richmond C. Domingo to
synthesize plastic resins from natural algal polysaccharides
which are put in aqueos glycerol. The results showed that the
bioplastic product had a positive result which is proven by the
75.24% and 6.00% more than the standard weight loss of
plastics in loam soil and an open-air environment respectively.

III. Conclusion

There are different ways to reduce plastic waste, improve its


environmental effects and try new methods to reuse it according to
some reviewed studies such as recycling plastics through tile making,
by asphalt property improvement, adding chicken bones when
recasting, using it as fuel, and using algal polysaccharides as plastic
resins. These examples serve as proof that there many more ways to
combat the enormous plastic wastes that have stacked and have yet
to come although the process may be a long one.

IV. References

Caguingin, M., Eugenio, C., & Santiago, R. (March, 2003). Utilization


of Discarded Thermo Plastic Polyethylene as an Aggregate in
Achieving the asphalt durability test. Retrieved from Philippine
Science High School – Cagayan Valley Campus.
Interior, J. (March, 2014). Conversion of low density polyethylene
plastics into fuel through home-built machine. Retrieved from
Philippine Science High School – Cagayan Valley Campus.

Bumanlag, P., Pascual, T., & Valite, J. (March, 2014). Strength Of


Linear Low Density Polyethylene Particulate Chicken Bones
Composite. Retrieved from Philippine Science High School –
Cagayan Valley Campus.

Domingo, J. (March, 2012). Development of Biomass – Based Plastic


Resin from Selected natural algal polysaccharides. Retrieved from
Philippine Science High School –Cagayan Valley Campus.

Corpus, J., Gaffud, P., & Mangacat. W. (March, 2009), Production And
Assessment Of The Compressive Strength Of This Tiles Made Of
Sand And Low Density And Thermoplastic Polyethylene. Retrieved
from Philippine Science High School - Cagayan Valley Campus.

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