Visual design of high-density polyethylene into wood plastic composite with multiple desirable features: A promising strategy for plastic waste valorization

Plastics waste represents an alarming pollution to the world due to its high production volume, strong biological and chemical stability hence difficult to be decomposed. Plastic waste has currently been disposed of in an unsatisfactory manner, resulting in secondary pollution of the environment being inevitable. This study demonstrates the use of plastic waste as feedstock to produce wood plastic composites as a promising strategy to reuse plastic waste. The existing production methods for wood plastic composite are complex, cost ineffective, and often yield the product with low mechanical properties. Here, we report a one-step hot molding method as an alternative to prepare high-performance wood plastic composites using poplar veneer and recycled high density polyethylene (HDPE). The resulted composite shows enhanced hydrogen bonding between cellulose and molecular crosslinking networks which have led to the carbonized lignin coated on the surface of cellulose. The composite also possesses of high strength (tensile strength 198.9 MPa), waterproof, corrosion resistance, heat insulation and flame retardancy. Overall, the composite prepared can be used in construction and furniture, thus demonstrating an effective approach to re-utilize plastic waste.