Waste HDPE bottles for selective oil sorption

Selective sorption of oil using plastic waste is presented. Plastic solid waste constitutes 15% of total municipal solid waste produced across the world and is mostly either discarded in landfills or incinerated. On the other hand, pollution caused by oil spill in aquatic locations is a serious environmental concern, and several sorbents have so far been proposed to address oil spill and plastic waste problems simultaneously by converting waste into oil sorbent. However, most of the sorbents have drawbacks of either high water uptake or low oil uptake capacity. In this study, we have synthesized oil sorbent using waste plastic bottles made up of high-density polyethylene with high selectivity and high oil uptake capacity. Mechanical properties and %crystallinity using differential scanning calorimetry were also determined to provide useful insight about the as prepared sorbent.