BSI 20/30393744 DC 2020

This document specifies test methods for the measurement of the physical degradation of samples made with plastics materials when exposed to marine environmental matrices under aerobic conditions at laboratory scale.

Plastics samples can be exposed to three different test conditions and different marine matrices: buried into a wet sandy marine sediment; at the interface between a marine sandy sediment and the water column; to seawater.

The conditions applied in these test methods are designed to determine the degradation rates of plastics materials and give an indication of their propensity to physical degradation and disintegration in natural environments.

Degradation rates considered in this document are mass loss rate, erosion rate, and mechanical properties loss. Disintegration, i.e. physical breakdown of a sample into very small fragments (<2mm) can also be assessed.

The test design (i.e. the total number of tested samples, the number of replicates and of repeated measurements) of the test methods is flexible. The complexity of test design and the cost of testing can be modulated according to the requests and purposes of the client. For example, tests planned for results delivered under statistically optimal conditions can be arranged for certification purposes, while simpler tests can be arranged for screening purposes.

This document is not suitable for the assessment of degradation caused by heat (thermo-degradation) or light exposure (photo-degradation).