ASTM D5526-18 Biodegradation of  Plastic Under Accelerated Landfill Conditions

Scope:

ASTM D5526-18 is intended to develop combinations of home garbage and plastic materials after various degrees of decomposition under landfill-like settings.The mixtures created by this test technique can be used to assess the environmental and health concerns of landfill-degraded plastic products. Rapid deterioration of plastic can improve the economic feasibility of landfill-gas recovery, reduce the period of landfill after-care, and allow for the recovery of trash volume decrease owing to biodegradation throughout the landfill’s active life.

Procedure:

In ASTM D5526-18  all reactors are placed in incubators at 35 6 2°C once filled and sealed. The reactors acclimate for about 1 hour before releasing the pressure created by the temperature rise into the environment. The reactors are kept  in the dark for four months. When the overpressure reaches 700 mbar, a pressure transducer is used to measure the pressure precisely and is released to atmospheric pressure. Depending on the activity of the inoculum, incubation time can be extended until no substantial gas generation is observed or until the positive reference has deteriorated by more than 70%.

Data:

Biodegradation of the plastics can be determined as follows:
% Biodegradation: mean
C8 (test) ̶̶ mean C8 (blank) / Ci × 100
Where:
C8 = gaseous carbon
produced, g
Ci = carbon added in
test compound, g