Recycled Materials for Construction Applications Plastic Products and Composites

This book presents the state of the art on the topic of recycling of plastic building materials, comprising a synthetic market analysis, and presenting the latest developments in plastic recycling technologies. The book also makes recommendations to optimize the success of recycling and encourage the circular economy, while acknowledging the environmental and sustainability implications of plastic recycling for building construction. The distinctive features of this book are the variety of topics covered on sustainable plastic recycling, the discussion of advances in plastic recycling technology, detailed illustrations, and summarized descriptions of separation processes. This book is a guide for both technical and non-technical readers, and for anyone involved in plastic waste or recycling, including researchers and students in plastics engineering, polymer science, polymer chemistry, environmental science, and sustainable materials.

Chapter1: Introduction.- Chapter2: Environmental aspects.- Chapter3: Plastic materials and additives.- Chapter4: Plastics market statistics.- Chapter5: Use of polymer materials in construction.- Chapter6: Recycling.- Chapter7: Economic and recycling statistical data.-  Chapter8: Constraints to the application of recycled plastics.- Chapter9: Recycling of the main plastics used in construction.- Chapter10: Final remarks.

Dr. Luís Eduardo Pimentel Real graduated in Chemical Engineering, by the Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Lisbon, Portugal. He received a PhD in Chemical Engineering (IST, Portugal) and a PhD in Chemistry (UBP, France).

He had been working in the Materials Department of National Laboratory of Civil Engineering (LNEC) from 1990 until 2015. Since January of 2016 he works in the Buildings Department of LNEC.

Its activity has been very dispersed and covers several fields, namely applied chemistry, degradation and stabilization of polymers, durability, environmental issues (radon and recycling), biocomposites, assessment of construction products and technical advice.

He is author and co-author of more than 200 publications, including scientific papers in journals listed on the ISI WEB of Science, communications at international scientific meetings, technical guides and reports, participation in several research European projects and in specialized courses and technical training. He was responsible, from several years, for an accredited laboratory of plastics and composites.

He was awarded the degree of specialist in Metrology by the Portuguese Order of Engineers, having carried out numerous activities in the scope of quality control of plastic materials and products, doing Agreement activity and support for certification, technical auditing in plastic pipe factories located in Portugal and Europe, participation in technical committees and working groups.