Due to the increasing awareness of environmental protection, the bio-based materials become important. One of the major commercial bio-based materials is the polylactic acid (PLA) products. The used PLA products need to be recycled under environmental regulation. To reduce the environmental problems caused by the large amount of waste PLA products, the recycled PLA could be reused to make some useful products. In the first part of this study, we used the mashed recycled PLA cap (rPLA) or the PLA commercial pallet (for comparison) to blend and extrude with several traditional plastics. We also investigate the physical and mechanical properties of different blended products with various cross-linking agents or oxidants. Because the PLA products have moderated biodegradability only under industrial composting system with specific high temperature and high moisture testing conditions, and has very slow biodegradation rate under the normal environmental conditions. Therefore, the second part of this study emphasized the increasing rPLA’s biodegradability by blending and extruding with several biodegradable plastics. The biodegradable testing environments included the enzymatic degradation and also the multi-microbes composting degradation system. Besides, we also investigate the physical, mechanical, and biodegradable properties of different compounded products with various cross-linking agents or oxidants.

Polylatic acid, Lipase, composting