Wood–plastic composites formulated with virgin and recycled ABS

It is demonstrated that wood–plastic composites (WPCs) having desirable mechanical properties can be formulated using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) as the matrix polymer. This is accomplished by compounding the polymer with 50 wt.% wood particulates using a twin-screw extruder; both virgin resin and polymer recovered from computer monitors and keyboards were utilized for this purpose. It was found that, while the impact strength and ductility of the virgin and recycled polymers were significantly different, the composite properties differed only slightly from each other. These properties could be improved with the use of coupling agents, but the extent of improvement depended on the chemical nature of the coupling agent employed. In view of this, ABS recovered from post-consumer applications can be recycled into high-value composites without going through the expense of separating out impurities from the polymer.