Abstract

This study investigated the development of a thermoplastic composite from waste recycled high-density polyethylene (used water bottle) using overleaf banana pseudo-stem as fibre. Recycled high-density polyethylene (rHDPE) was used as a polymer matrix, and the fibre was prepared via mechanical methods. The banana stem fibres were introduced at 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50% volume fractions. The matrix and the fibre were compounded using a two-roll mill machine at the temperature of 170°C then compressed using a compression moulding machine at 150°C for 5 minutes and at 2.5Pa. The thermoplastic composites produced were characterised and optimised to examine the effects of fibre ratio on mechanical properties, including tensile strength, hardness and impact strength. The properties of the composite material increase as the fibre content increases but decrease when the fibre loading decreases in combination with recycled low-density polyethylene (rHDPE). Thus, the critical loading ratio of fibre to rHDPE was obtained at optimal design parameters of 22.8% (Fiber) and 77.2% (RHDPE), respectively, at a p-value of 5%. The predicted properties of the composite at these optimum conditions were 16.39 MPa, 96.18 shores and 1.14 J/mm for tensile, hardness and impact properties, respectively, with a 10% margin error for model acceptance. The research demonstrated that converting banana stem fibre and RHDPE into composite material is a sustainable and environmental waste disposal and management approach.