Abstract
The objective of this paper is to produce an environmentally friendly artificial wood for structural application, by recycling mixed plastic waste and date palm leaves waste. Several pretreated wood plastic composites mixtures, using a 1:1 ratio of palm leaves and plastic waste, were designed and developed namely, polycarbonate (PC-mix), polystyrene (PS-mix), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC-mix). The batch mixture of each type was extruded at different temperature profiles.
The density, water absorption, hardness, modulus of elasticity (tensile and flexure), impact strength, and linear burning rate of the WPC samples produced were determined, and the results were compared with the natural hard, soft wood, and medium density fiberboard (MDF) woods. The developed wood plastic composites exhibited less water absorption, linear burning and hardness, higher density than that of natural and MDF wood, and can be used in outdoor structures. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.