Dielectric properties of recycled city and industrial waste polyethylene

Dielectric performance of recycled city and industrial waste PE was investigated in comparison with virgin PE. The possibility of using industrial and city waste polymers as insulation of power cables was studied. The results of dielectric spectroscopy revealed higher values of both imaginary and real parts of permittivity for recycled PE. Dielectric loss of city and industrial waste PE was almost 10 and 4 times higher than that of virgin PE, respectively. The imaginary part of permittivity was almost constant for virgin and industrial waste polymers in the range of measured frequencies. In contrast, the imaginary permittivity of city waste PE was increasing in the low frequencies range and an interfacial relaxation peak was observable. The breakdown strength of recycled city waste PE, when measured using the short-term procedure, was found to be slightly lower than that of pure PE.