A Green Approach to Produce Low-cost Waste Rubber Tiles Upheld with Recycled Polyethylene and Bagasse

Recyclability is a key for consumed polymers to diminish their harmful impact on the environment. In this work, reclaimed devulcanized waste rubber (WR), recycled high density polyethylene and bagasse fibers (BF) are used to prepare composites and select from them the optimum one(s) to be applied as low-cost rubber-based tiles. The prepared composites were characterized via gel fraction, mechanical properties including abrasion, hardness, tensile strength and Young's modulus, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to study the morphological behavior of the prepared composites, illustrating the impact of loading bagasse fibers to support the properties of these composites. The findings affirm that the RPE and BF were compatible with the reclaimed devulcanized waste rubber. Moreover, the mechanical properties presented acceptable tensile strength values after adding recycled polyethylene (RPE) and BF, whereas the elasticity of the composites was reduced with the addition of fillers. In this context, the hardness and abrasion loss resistance were improved by RPE addition and enhanced more in the presence of BF with maintained thermal stability.