RECYCLING ACRYLIC

[High Seas]

Ok this is a question - but with a preface.

1. Glass - yes fairly easy to recycle - break it up, smash it, refloat in a kiln for art glass projects.

2. Stone - break it up, crush it - use it in your polymer composite frame - or driveway.

3. BUT - what about acrylic?

I have a bunch of scraps left over from vacuum forming trimming - and would like to recycle somehow. Anyone have an idea - temperature - process - machine?
Melt in a crucible? Again, temp and time -- done the "google" but no joy.

Seems like it ought to be doable. Anybody done it?
Jim

[Geof]

I would caution against experimenting by trying to melt it. Acrylic de-polymerises when it melts and produces the monomer methylmethacrylate which is very bad news for breathing. This is the harsh smelling stuff that you can smell when you overheat acrylic while machining.

[High Seas]

I'd like to keep this open - but after some more sleuthing - it seems like acrylic is made by reacting methacrylic acid with methyl alcohol.

AND, it is often not taken at recycle centers - thats why I was interested - so maybe I'll need to find a better plastic to thermoform and have a "greener-waste-stream."

Jim

AND http://www.enotes.com/how-products-e...crylic-plastic

Acrylic plastic is not easily recycled. It is considered a group 7 plastic among recycled plastics and is not collected for recycling in most communities. Large pieces can be reformed into other useful objects if they have not suffered too much stress, crazing, or cracking, but this accounts for only a very small portion of the acrylic plastic waste. In a landfill, acrylic plastics, like many other plastics, are not readily biodegradable. Some acrylic plastics are highly flammable and must be protected from sources of combustion.

Its that reforming - I am still interested in....

[Geof]

Yes the methacrylic acid reacted with methanol gives methylmethacrylate which then spontaneously polymerizes to give poly methylmethacrylate, aka: PMMA, Plexiglas, Perspex or Acrylic.

PMMA does not deteriorate except for surface crazing and stress cracking under some applications. It is not susceptible to ultra violet attack like many plastic which get brittle and does not use plasticizers which leach out causing the plastic to become brittle. I think the 'reforming' probably refers the the fact that large pieces that have not crazed or stress cracked can probably be refinished into smaller parts.

I like the 'some acrylic are highly flammable' and would like to see one that is not.