PRODUCTION OF WOOD PLASTIC COMPOSITES AS A SUSTAINABLE SOLUTION FOR THE POST-HARVEST AGRICULTURE WASTE AND PLASTIC WASTE

Pollution caused by burning the post-harvest agriculture waste and plastic waste in is a very serious problem that needs a solution. The amount of agricultural waste in Egypt ranges from 30 to 35 million tons a year. Out of this amount, only 11 million tons are used as animal feed and organic manure and the rest is burned. Egypt also produces 5.4 million tons of plastics yearly, only 20% of which is recycled. The rest is either burned resulting in highly toxic dioxins or dumped in water sources causing endanger to aquatic life. Egypt does not produce wood and imports more than three billion dollars’ worth of wood yearly, including wood plastic composites (WPC). WPC is a composite material widely used in decking, fencing, garden furniture, cladding, and kitchen cabinets and made of wood fiber, thermoplastics, and additives. This work investigates the sustainable sources to produce WPC from different types of agriculture and plastic wastes. To produce WPC of high quality, the processing, physical, and mechanical testing were carried out on the produced WPC. Three types of post-harvest waste were experimented, orange tree trimmings, cotton stems, and casuarina tree trimmings. Both virgin and recycled High Density Polyethylene (vHDPE & rHDPE respectively) plastic were experimented. Both Maleic Anhydride grafted polyethylene (MAPE) and silane coupling agents were also experimented. Results show that, the compound that had the best WPC properties had the following recipe: orange wood at 50% by weight with 0.11 mesh size, rHDPE at 50%, MAPE coupling agent at 5%.