Abstract
Extensive use of plastics leads to the increase of non biodegradable wastes that have to be recycled due to both dramatically
decrease of natural resources to producing them and to their increasing need as well as due to environmental issues. Most of
goods made by materials based on wastes have to be commonly used by people. Antibacterial character of those is necessary to
avoid epidemics. This paper deals with determination of antimicrobial character of materials based on polymeric wastes in
comparison with virgin polyolefins. Surface contamination, total number of germs, E. coli and Enterococci growth on the
samples surface have been determined and correlated with the surface characteristics of materials (hydrophobicity, surface
energy, polarity, charge, roughness) as well as with bulk characteristics such as Young Modulus, crystallinity, water sorption.
The conclusion of this study is that materials based on wastes are more sanitary safe by comparing to virgin polymers obtained
without antimicrobial additives. This is due to possible maintaining in wastes of active antibacterial additives used in the plastic
goods processing. High crystallinity and low water sorption avoid their release. Surface conformation seems to not fit to bacteria
shape and dimensions, hindering their adhesion and growth. Negatively charged surface repels negative bacteria. Lower surface
hydrophily of wastes, coming from OH and CO groups’ elimination, due to photo-degradation during their life cycle, determines
lower adhesion of more hydrophilic bacteria such as E. coli.